American Honda Motor Co. has tapped longtime associate Lance Woelfer to head up the Honda brand sales division amidst a robust product rollout and efforts to ready itself for electric vehicles.
Woelfer’s promotion comes as Honda battles to build back lost momentum after suffering one of the industry’s tightest inventory supplies. He fills the spot left by Mike Kistemaker following his departure to Ken Garff Automotive.
“Lance is essentially a pure Honda ‘product,'” Mamadou Diallo, vice president of auto sales for American Honda Motor Co., told Automotive News. “He is 26 years in and everything he’s done so far has prepared him for this moment.
“His entire career has been on the sales side, with a couple of stints in the back office, and we are super excited to have him on board,” Diallo added.
After a more than 10-year run managing sales in Honda’s mid-Atlantic region out of Maryland, Woelfer returned to California in 2020 to oversee the Honda and Acura brands in the western region. From 2008 to 2009, he served as Honda’s Northwest zone manger.
Woelfer joined the company in 1997 as a sales analyst. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Portland State University.