Thai Floods: Honda to delay new Civic launch, CR-V launch on schedule

Honda Motor Co., the most affected Japanese automaker by the Thailand’s floods, on Monday announced that its new 2012 Honda CR-V will begin mass production in the U.S. on Tuesday, Nov. 29 at the East Liberty Auto Plant in Ohio.

However, Honda will delay its new Civic launch by at least one month, following parts shortages from the flood-hit region which have already caused production to be cut at Honda’s Swindon plant – where the Civic model is built.

The situation is being monitored daily, says Honda. Dealers are still on schedule to receive their demonstrators in December.

Honda UK managing director Dave Hodgetts is philosophical about it. The earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March had already cost him around 10,000 sales in the UK with two months of lost output.
But he is buoyed by October’s sales performance. With supply returning to something like normal, Honda UK had its best month for some time taking a 3.6 per cent share of the market.

“It was our best retail result and highest market share for some years,” he explained.

Even so the year will end with sales of around 54,000, “a low point for Honda in the UK,” said Hodgetts.
In the United States and Canada – the situation is still critical, but a normal production is expected from Dec. 1 and Dec. 2. Production plans after Dec. 2 will be announced in the future.

Parts and materials for the Honda and Acura vehicles sold in North America come mainly from North American suppliers, but a small number of critical electronic parts are from other parts of the world, including Thailand.