There are not that many carmakers that also produce motorcycles under the same brand. But those that do… really do.
It’s natural to start with Honda, which made bikes before cars. It’s the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world, but that part of the business is also a contributor to its status as the world’s largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines (which includes everything from garden equipment to generators to marine engines).
The first complete motorcycle designed and built by Honda in 1949 introduced a name that’s still used today on many of its car engines: the D-Type “Dream”.
Much of Honda’s appeal was built on building bikes for “everyperson”, especially when it began exporting outside Japan: the Super Cub, launched in 1958, remains the biggest-selling motorised vehicle… ever.
Honda became the number one motorcycle manufacturer in the world in 1964 and has stayed there ever since.
Suzuki is known in the car industry as a small-car specialist (and unlike Honda it made cars first), but it’s also one of the biggest motorcycle manufacturers in the world.
It launched its first two-wheeled model in 1952; much of its brand-building took place through technology and success in motorsport
In 1975 Suzuki even made the world’s first rotary-engined motorcycle, the RE5 (it was a commercial disaster and the project was dumped!).
Some companies we now know just as carmakers dabbled in motorcycles – that’s how Mazda got its automotive start in 1931, for example, although it now just sticks to four wheels.
Other motorcycle specialists have dabbled in the world of cars. Yamaha has contributed technology to engines for Ford, Toyota, Lexus, Lotus and Volvo.
It even planned to make a sports car in partnership with Gordon Murray Design, hinted at by the Sports Ride concept from 2015, although the project was shelved in 2019.
KTM has built its own-brand track car, the X-Bow, since 2008.
Among premium carmakers, BMW is unique in having a motorcycle division that’s every bit as rich in heritage as its cars. It began making motorcycle engines for other companies, but launched as BMW Motorrad way back in 1923 with the R 32 – six years before there was a BMW-branded car.