Shogo, which takes its name from a Japanese phrase and intended to mean “soaring into the future,” is hand assembled by Honda racing engineers at HPD and will be provided to children’s hospitals across the country in partnership with their local Honda dealers. The first two production Honda Shogo vehicles have arrived at Akron Children’s in Akron, Ohio and Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, Indiana in partnership with the Northern Ohio Honda Dealers Ad Association and Shogo servicing partner, Great Lakes Honda, and the Central Indiana Honda Dealers Ad Association and Shogo servicing partner, Penske Honda, respectively. Additional Shogo vehicles will make their way to children’s hospitals throughout the country as early as this fall.
“Creating Shogo was a true labor of love for our team of Honda associates and engineers driven by our desire to bring joy and mobility to young patients dealing with a hospital stay,” said Hundy Liu, manager of national automobile advertising and Project Courage Lead, American Honda Motor Co., Inc. “We’re incredibly excited to expand the program by partnering with our Honda dealer network to make a Shogo vehicle possible for more children’s hospitals nationwide and use the power of play and laughter to help ease the stress and anxiety of hospitalized children and their families.”
The original Honda Shogo vehicle has been transporting young patients to and from procedures and appointments at one of Honda’s long-term community partners, Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) in California, since December 2021, bringing joy and comfort to these children and their families. Honda initiated the Shogo program – called “Project Courage” – utilizing a version of Shogo designed and built by a small volunteer team of Honda associates. The team conceived the concept with the ultimate aspiration, now realized, to build Shogos to help more children and their families dealing with hospital stays nationwide.
HPD Assumes Production Role
HPD has transformed the original Honda Shogo design into a production-ready vehicle over an 18-month process, meticulously and successfully advancing Shogo’s engineering along the way. HPD’s racing engineers have increased Shogo’s durability, safety and performance, while adding a racing pedigree to the electric ride-on vehicle with multiple parts and pieces borrowed from Honda’s race-winning machines, from IndyCar steering shaft washers and front knuckle bearings to steering from a Honda-powered Go Kart.
To bring even bigger smiles to the children, the HPD team also reimagined Shogo’s horn to play a new series of cheerful sounds. The racing engineers thought about every possible detail, even Shogo’s VIN tag is a special, laser-cut mini Shogo-shaped aluminum plate hidden away on each chassis.
HPD is much like a prototype shop, but with a racing pedigree and capabilities from product engineering to production, so we knew incorporating Shogo into our manufacturing process was the perfect fit,” said Kelvin Fu, vice president, Honda Performance Development. “Everyone at Honda who has touched Shogo has been emotionally impacted by the project, so HPD playing a part in creating a memory for these children during a stressful hospital experience is beyond measure for our team.”
Honda Electric Ride-On Vehicle
The battery-powered Shogo is specifically designed to navigate hospital hallways with a focus on helping patients ages 4 through 9. Honda Shogo is easy for children to “drive” by managing the go/stop mechanism on the steering wheel, with an adjustable speed of 1-5 miles per hour. It also can be pushed by a nurse or caregiver by a rear handlebar, which is equipped with an IV pole attachment.
Safe and easily accessible for young riders, Honda Shogo is designed without doors and features central seating with steering controls suitable for a child. Smooth, soft-to-the-touch surfacing makes Honda Shogo easy to keep clean in an indoor hospital setting, while a toy bucket in the front of the vehicle holds items the child would like to bring along with them and a center horn provides a variety of sound options. Honda Shogo’s license plate slot is customizable to display the name of each rider.