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Honda Closing UK Plant, Could Relocate Civic Hatchback Production To the U.S.

On February 19th, Brexit took its toll on the British automotive industry once again with Honda’s confirmation to abandon the Swindon factory in 2021. Yearly production stands at 150,000 vehicles, a figure that weighs heavily on the automaker’s yearly sales of 5.3 million vehicles worldwide.
Honda Civic hatchback production in Swindon 1 photo
Photo: Honda
Along with this announcement, Honda confirmed it would restructure its global manufacturing network to accelerate the automaker’s commitment to electrification. The closure of the Swindon site is understood to happen at the end of the Civic Hatchback’s production lifecycle.

Over in Turkey, Honda Turkiye A.S. has been informed that the restructuring will see the end of the Civic Sedan in 2021. The local branch “will continue to hold constructive dialogue with Turkish stakeholders during this period,” but don’t get your hopes up for a miracle.

“We have had to take this difficult decision to consult our workforce on how we might prepare our manufacturing network for the future,” said Katsushi Inoue, chief officer for European regional operations. “This has not been taken lightly and we deeply regret how unsettling today’s announcement will be for our people.”

The European headquarters of Honda will continue to be located in the United Kingdom, not that far off from the Formula 1 base in Milton Keynes. The Civic Hatchback, however, could switch production to a facility in North America.

“Part of the reason for this is that the hatch is quite popular,” reports Autoblog.com, adding that 20 percent of North American sales of the Civic are hatchbacks. The Type R, for example, has its engine manufactured in Ohio.

In its tenth generation since 2015, the compact-sized Civic received a mid-cycle refresh for the 2019 model year. The hatchback prototype was introduced at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show, and considering the 2021 deadline for Swindon, that’s the year the eleventh generation is expected to launch in the United States.

Honda Canada manufactures the Civic Sedan and CR-V, CVTs are sourced from Russels Point, Ohio and Celaya, Mexico. Whichever way you look at it, North America seems like a sure bet for the next Civic Hatchback.
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About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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