TOKYO, - Late last year, a handful of retired Honda Motor executives started meeting privately to discuss the Japanese automaker's troubles and the person they believed was the cause: Chief Executive Toshihiro Mibe.Over months of text messages, as well as meetings and meals that sometimes included current executives, they laid out a case against the former engineer, according to a written summary of their discussions reviewed by Reuters and interviews with two participants.
They blamed Mibe for neglecting China, the world's biggest auto market, and making a failed bet on electric vehicles that would leave Honda with its first annual loss in seven decades.
They accused him of paying more attention to Honda's golf sponsorship than its business.By April, the old guard had had enough.
Former chief executive Nobuhiko Kawamoto, a participant in some of those conversations, visited Tokyo headquarters and told Mibe to resign, three people familiar with that meeting told Reuters.Mibe, who remains in his role, didn't budge.The crisis at Honda is emblematic of the challenges facing traditional carmakers everywhere, though Japan's industry is hard hit.
Its automakers are reliant on the U.S. market, where profits are being squeezed by President Donald Trump's tariffs and rollback of EV subsidies.
