Who Makes Honda's Boat Engines & Where Are They Built?
Honda is the largest engine manufacturer in the world, responsible for the engine in your Accord, the engine in your lawnmower, and the engine of a HondaJet. The company says it's made engines for over 3,000 applications. It also has manufacturing facilities on six continents, making all of those engines and the parts needed to keep them running.
A perhaps overlooked part of Honda's business is the whole lineup of marine engines it produces. It's been making marine engines since 1964 and was one of the original pioneers of four-stroke boat motors. Now, you can even buy a boat engine with the same VTEC technology that you'd see in a Honda or Acura performance car.
So where are Honda marine engines made? The vast majority of its marine engines are made in Japan at the Hosoe Outboard Engine Plant in the Shizuoka Prefecture. "Vast majority" is the key phrase here, as Honda's smaller outboards are made in China, ranging from 2 to 6 horsepower.
Outboard engines big and small
The current lineup of Honda marine engines is pretty wide. The smallest engine is the BF2.3, which, as the name implies, is a 2.3-horsepower outboard four-stroke motor. Honda notes it weighs just 30 pounds. It's best suited for little boats and inflatables. Still, because it's at its heart a classic Honda, it can still rev to 6,000 rpm.
The biggest outboard Honda makes is the BF350. It's a 350-horsepower V8 and was the first production V8 Honda ever made. Its crankshaft was made using the same alloy and testing specifications as the Acura NSX. It's, of course, much heavier at a maximum of 776 pounds. It's one of the most powerful outboard engines you can currently buy.
The rest of Honda makes millions of engines a year across its several dozen plants. The marine operation, though, is comparatively small. The Outboard Engine Plant has the capacity to produce 80,000 engines a year. Still, given a marine engine's much harsher living conditions compared to its land-based siblings, making an outboard 350-horsepower V8 with VTEC is quite an impressive feat.