American Honda Motor Company Welcomes New CEO Noriya Kaihara

Its previous CEO is now in charge of something even bigger.

By: Janaki Jitchotvisut

Aug 5, 2021 at 2:40pm ET

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It may only be the beginning of August, 2021, but American Honda Motor Company is already thinking ahead. As of October 1, 2021, Noriya Kaihara will assume his new role as American Honda Motor Company president, CEO, and director. He’ll also be the chief officer of regional operations for all of North America.

What does that mean for outgoing CEO Shinji Aoyama? He’s actually been hard at work establishing himself in his new global Honda role—which is also an entirely new position for the company. As of July 1, 2021, he officially became global Honda’s Officer in Charge of Electrification. That means he’s in charge of motorcycle, automobile, power equipment, and all other Honda branches currently working toward electrification.

Incoming American Honda CEO Kaihara is currently the chief officer of Customer First Operations, as well as being Honda’s global Risk Management Officer. He’s been with Honda for a long time, serving in multiple capacities throughout his career. From April 2002 through April 2004, he started at Honda Canada. From 2004 through 2008, he moved on to Service at American Honda.

Previous American Honda CEO Shinji Aoyama will lead global Honda's electrification strategy.

After that, Kaihara spent the intervening years in various Honda Motor positions. Crucially, he played an important role in the Honda and General Motors collaboration on electrification, which puts him in a good position to help Honda forge ahead to face its newest challenges.

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While we don’t know what goes on behind closed doors, Honda is going to need all its best minds and hands at work to reach its goal of being 100 percent zero emissions by 2040. We’ve already seen various ways in which the House of Soichiro is charging forward, including a partnership with heavy equipment manufacturer Komatsu on electric micro excavators powered by Honda Mobile Power Packs.

Honda clearly has grand plans for those Mobile Power Packs, and that probably won’t be the last partnership we see with another manufacturer looking for a good way to go electric. While Honda is working hard on developing its own electric vehicles, its expansion into powering other electric equipment large and small will be both interesting and important to witness as it evolves around the globe.