Honda becomes world’s first company to receive new highest 5-star rating

Honda’s five-star FIA Road Safety Index rating reflects its global commitment to safer mobility, supported by safety initiatives across the MENA region

For more than 75 years, Honda has pursued a simple yet powerful ambition, to improve people’s lives through mobility. From automobiles and motorcycles to marine engines, power products and even in the air with the Honda Jet, Honda has built a global business around the belief that technology should create greater freedom, convenience and, ultimately, joy for people around the world.

This philosophy has found a strong resonance across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), where Honda has been bringing joy to customers for decades through a diverse portfolio of products designed for everyday life and adventure. Its cars combine practicality, comfort, performance and advanced technology; its motorcycles provide accessible and enjoyable mobility with E-Clutch and Dual Clutch transmissions for a wide range of riders; its marine engines power experiences on the water; and its power products support customers with reliable solutions for work, leisure and everyday needs.

Across the region, Honda’s presence goes beyond simply selling products. It is about understanding how people live, work and travel, and delivering products that help them pursue their ambitions and enjoy their journeys. Whether it is a family embarking on a road trip, a rider discovering the freedom of two wheels, a customer enjoying time on the water, or a user relying on Honda power equipment, the company’s goal remains consistent: to bring greater freedom and joy to people’s lives.

In a pioneering move to elevate road safety standards across the UAE, Honda Motor Co. (Middle East & Africa Office) and its distributor, Al-Futtaim Honda, partnered with Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) on September 11 to launch the region’s first collaborative motorcycle safety training programme for commercial delivery riders.

The two-day intensive training event was held on September 11 and 12 at the Dubai Autodrome Circuit, targeting delivery riders from major platforms such as Talabat, Noon and Smile.

Focused on food delivery professionals who navigate the city’s roads daily, the initiative recognises these riders as the unsung heroes of modern urban life. By prioritising their safety, Honda and RTA are cultivating a road culture rooted in discipline, responsibility, and mutual respect, where motorcycles and other vehicles can coexist harmoniously.

In February 2025, Honda had become the first company in the automotive industry to receive the 3-star rating, which was the Index’s highest possible rating at the time based on their operations in Japan.

Since then, the FIA has expanded the FIA Road Safety Index from 3 to 5 stars, strengthening its methodology and introducing three additional assessment modules: Planning, monitoring of safety performance, and safety culture management and supply chain or products/services coverage.

This commitment to people and society is also reflected in Honda’s longstanding focus on safety for everyone. As the company continues to pursue its global vision of creating a society where everyone can share the road safely, its latest achievement with the FIA Road Safety Index represents an important milestone. Honda has become the world’s first company to receive the new highest five-star rating from the FIA Road Safety Index, recognition that reinforces the company’s commitment to measuring, improving and expanding its road safety footprint.

For Honda, this achievement is not simply a recognition of what has been accomplished, but a reflection of an ongoing responsibility: to use its technology, products and global expertise to help create safer mobility and a better future for communities in the MENA region and around the world.

This milestone moment was recognised at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Italy, during the FIA Formula One Italian Grand Prix in September. The FIA Road Safety Index is a tool designed to enable businesses and organisations to visualise and measure the impact of their operations on road safety. The Index provides a comprehensive assessment and evaluation of the road safety initiatives of each organisation, while embedding a culture of safety throughout their operations.

Through the FIA Road Safety Index, the FIA continues to mobilise public and private sector organisations worldwide to measure and improve their road safety performance across their operations and help make roads safer for everyone, everywhere.

The FIA Road Safety Index system contains two ratings:

1. The “supply chain rating”, which covers a broad range of corporate activities from procurement of raw materials, to development and production of products, and customer delivery of the products

2. The “products/services rating”, which evaluates the safety aspects of products/services. Honda received the highest 5-star rating in the products/services rating.

To accommodate the Index development, Honda expanded the scope of the assessment to 17 countries, which account for more than 90 per cent of its global sales volume for both motorcycles and automobiles, and underwent a comprehensive assessment by the FIA. As a result, the overall Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) process Honda has established for its safety initiatives, including the newly added assessment areas, was highly regarded.

In particular, the following Honda initiatives were highly recognised:

• Commitment to pursuing safety initiatives based on a mid- to long-term strategy, with the involvement of top management

• Estimation and tracking of the number of traffic collision fatalities and injuries (footprint) on a global basis

• Monitoring progress towards its safety goals, conducted by its global safety council as a part of Honda sustainability governance

• Global application of advanced safety technologies and organisation-wide efforts to foster a safety culture

• Proactive disclosure of information related to traffic safety

Striving to realise a collision-free society for everyone sharing the road, Honda has been committed to pursuing safety initiatives under the Honda global safety slogan of “Safety for Everyone.”

Going forward, Honda will make further progress in verifying the effectiveness of its safety technologies based on real-world traffic collision data and contribute to solving societal issues centred around road safety.

Mohammed Ben Sulayem, president of the FIA, said: “Road safety remains one of the world’s most urgent challenges, and no single organisation or sector can address it alone. Progress depends on action at scale across the public and private sectors, uniting all stakeholders around our shared goal of saving lives on the road.

The FIA has an important role to play in accelerating that change for road users worldwide. Alongside our work with companies, we encourage governments to consider how the FIA Road Safety Index methodology can support regulatory compliance frameworks and strengthen road safety standards globally.

We aim to build a shared culture in which road safety is recognised as a fundamental responsibility. I congratulate Honda on leading the way and becoming the first organization to receive five stars.”

Shunsuke Yamada, director, Honda Motor Co. (Middle East Office) said: “Receiving the FIA Road Safety Index’s highest five-star rating is a significant achievement for Honda and a strong recognition of our commitment to making road safety a shared responsibility. We are proud to be the first company to achieve this new rating, reflecting our continued efforts to promote safer mobility and striving to reduce the number of traffic collision fatalities involving Honda motorcycles and automobiles worldwide by 50 per cent by 2030, then to achieve zero traffic collision fatalities by 2050.”