Honda plans North American production shifts to make more SUVs
Honda Motor Co (7267.T)
is shifting around its North American vehicle production mix and may
raise imports from Japan to squeeze out more SUVs as it struggles to
keep up with strong U.S. demand for larger models, a factor which has
prompted the automaker to trim its annual sales forecast. From
early next year, Honda will dedicate production at its Alabama plant to
its Pilot SUV, Ridgeline pick-up truck and Odyssey minivan, shifting
production of its luxury Acura MDX SUV to its plant in Ohio as part of
efforts to align its overall production of popular models to better
reflect market demand. Demand
for multi-tasking vehicles from cost-conscious consumers and
historically low gasoline prices have ramped up demand for SUVs and
other larger models over that of passenger cars. So
far this year, roughly 59 percent of all new vehicles sold in the
world's No.2 auto market have been light trucks, versus 41 percent
passenger vehicles, compared with 55 percent and 45 percent,
respectively, a year earlier. In
comments scheduled for release on Thursday, American Honda Motor Co CEO
Toshiaki Mikoshiba told reporters that by also shifting more production
of its popular CR-V model to its Indiana plant from Mexico, and
producing more of its HR-V models in Mexico, the company planned to lift
its production weighting between light trucks and passenger cars more
in favor of light trucks, from an even balance currently. "While
maintaining our current overall capacity (in North America), we'd like
to also consider our production options in Japan ... to produce more
light trucks to respond to strong demand," Mikoshiba said. "So long as we don't see a sudden reversal in gasoline prices, we believe this would be the right move for the market." Japan's
third-largest automaker by vehicle sales also said that it was
considering producing the CR-V and the Civic sedan in Japan to be
exported to North America to fill any gaps in local production. Honda
is planning to market the recently revamped Civic in Japan, which a
company spokeswoman said would add to production capacity, while it is
also considering marketing the latest CR-V at home.
Last month, Honda lowered its annual North American vehicle sales forecast to 1.985 million, from its previous expectation for 1.990 million, due in part to the skew in market demand.
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