Hiroshi Kizawa

Hiroshi Kizawa

HondaDevelopment team member / Development lead

Joined Honda's automobile business in its early days and led development of the first Civic, the first Accord and the first Prelude

Timeline

  1. 1963

    Joined

    Honda Motor Co., Ltd. Automobile Test Unit, Vehicle Testing Section

  2. 1964
    S600
    S600

    1964–1966Development team member

  3. 1966
    S800
    S800

    1966–1970Development team member

  4. 1972
    Civic (1st generation)
    Civic (1st generation)

    1972–1979Development lead

    Worked with

    Small cars seen in Europe

    Kizawa went to Europe and studied European cars with Yoshio Nakamura and others, which went on to influence development of the first Civic. After returning to Japan, he took over from Tadashi Kume as development lead of code name 634, which became the first Civic. The Civic became a worldwide hit, and Honda secured its footing in the car business.

  5. 1978
    Prelude 1st generation
    Prelude 1st generation

    1978–1982Development lead

    Worked with

  6. 1985

    Honda R&D EuropePresident

Connections

  • Hiroyuki Ito

    Hiroyuki Ito

    Subordinate

    Ito worked on noise and vibration development under Kizawa, who was development leader (LPL) of the first-generation Civic.

Profile

From Okayama Prefecture. Graduated from Nihon University, former Faculty of Engineering. Development leader of the first-generation Civic and the first-generation Prelude. Former senior managing director of Honda R&D.

Translated from Japanese sources.

Honda engineers

All Honda engineers