Honda Dropping Microcars in Favour of Hybrids

As the financial crisis continues to threaten the world and the traffic is getting more and more congested, the automotive producers are forced to offer vehicles that come with solutions for these problems. However, each company has to develop a certain strategy, following an established pathway for the aforementioned vehicles’ development.

The second largest carmaker in Japan, Honda, seems to be rethinking its business plan for small and efficient vehicles. The company will focus on hybrid vehicle developments, dropping plans to establish a minivehicle factory in Japan, as the Nikkei business daily reports via Reuters.

Back in 2008, Honda announced that it would postpone the construction of the Yorii factory and the minivehicles (these use 660 cubic centimeters engines) plant, with both sites originally scheduled to debut production in 2010.

The Yorii plant was supposed to serve as a production site for clean diesel engines and other eco technologies. However, Honda scrapped the plan to build clean diesels, concentrating its efforts on developing a new hybrid system for its larger cars.

The report also shows that Honda will reconsider its plans for minivehicles (these are only sold on the Japanese domestic market). The company had been planning to make a serious investment for the development of a minivehicle plant. However, the automaker now wants to stop offering commercial-use minivehicles.

According to the Nikkei, the Yorii plant will become operational in 2013. The source contacted Honda, asking the company about its future plans, but a company spokesman declined to confirm the report.