Why Is Honda Discontinuing Lawn Mowers Moving Forward? Here's What We Know
Although Honda may be best known for its cars and bikes, the Japanese manufacturer makes a wide range of products, including lawn mowers. In fact, Honda is one of, if not the best major lawn mower brand. It even set a world record when the Honda Mean Mower V2 hit 100 mph in 6.2-seconds, which may not be practical for lawn care but is still impressive nonetheless. However, those accomplishments still weren't enough to keep the manufacturer in the lawn mower market.
In late 2022, Honda made the decision to stop manufacturing gas-powered lawn mowers. The plans wouldn't go into effect immediately, with the company wrapping up production in late 2023 and selling units through 2024 until they are all gone. But, if Honda was such a lawn mower powerhouse, why discontinue them moving forward?
While there were many factors at play, including lingering supply issues stemming from the pandemic, the biggest reason was the overall shift to and rise of battery-powered lawn care equipment. "The decision to end lawn mower production is driven by market forces such as stricter environmental regulations, shifting customer preferences, and our focus on growing profitable products in our portfolio," Honda said in its 2022 statement to its dealer network (via Pro Tool Reviews). Simply put, gas-powered lawn mowers were out, battery power was in, and if Honda wanted to remain profitable, changes were necessary.
Honda isn't done with lawn mowers, technically
Honda isn't the first, and likely isn't the last, to end production on gas-powered lawn mowers, but that doesn't mean it's leaving the lawn care industry entirely. Profits and consumer preferences clearly prove that battery-powered equipment is the future, and Honda's following suit with the transition.
When Honda initially announced the discontinuation of its gas-powered mowers, there was no word whether electric ones were in the company's future. However, once it wrapped up production in late 2023, the company unveiled a new autonomous work mower. The Honda Autonomous Work Mower (AWM) is the company's first battery-powered electric lawn mower. It features zero-turn riding and futuristic learning capabilities. When in manual mode, the AWM functions like any other battery-powered lawn mower, but it also learns your mowing routes. Then, in autonomous mode, it can recreate those patterns to cut the grass just as you would.
At the time of this writing, Honda hasn't revealed plans to make other battery-powered ride-on lawn mowers, but that seems inevitable. It already has the Izy-Ons, a line of electric push mowers, for those who don't want to wait (or can't afford) the AWM. The company wants to achieve carbon neutrality for all products by 2050, and discontinuing gas-powered lawn mowers takes a significant step towards that goal.