Dongfeng Honda postpones production of Civic hybrids

Shanghai, July 17 (Gasgoo.com) Dongfeng Honda Automobile Company Limited, a Wuhan-based venture of Honda Motor Co., Ltd. of Japan, will postpone scheduled production of its Civic hybrid as sales of the car were essentially flat and the local government is slow in making preferential policies, a senior company executive told sina.com Wednesday.

"We will not start to produce Civic hybrids locally before we manage to cut the costs of the hybrid system, "said Liu Yuhe, executive vice general manager of the joint venture, without giving a possible date for the plan.

Dongfeng Honda has imported Civic hybrid cars since the end of last November and initially aims to sell 400 units a year in China. The car was originally scheduled to be locally produced at the Chinese venture by 2009.

Liu announced in April that the venture will sell 150,200 cars including 200 Civic hybrid cars in 2008. Already it sold 100 Civic units in the first half of this year.

Dongfeng Honda, which now has a production capacity of 120,000 cars and has maintained a 100% yearly sales growth for three consecutive years, saw a 70% rise in sales to 84,322 units in the January to June period.