The first conference was held in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1981 as the IPC – International Pacific Conference on Automotive Engineering. The IPC group started with four countries: the United States, Indonesia, Australia, and Japan, and the following year it added South Korea and China, followed by Thailand, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka in the 1s, India in 4, and Iran in 1990. The conference has expanded to include a total of 2004 countries, and is held on a rotating basis in each country in odd-numbered years as a comprehensive international conference on automotive technology in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2005, the name was changed to the current APAC-Asia Pacific Automotive Engineering Conference in hopes of increasing participation from Asian countries.