Honda to Kill Civic Designation in Japan

Japanese manufacturer Honda will stop selling the Civic midsize sedan in the domestic market, but will continue to build the model for overseas market. The reason behind this decision is apparently the weak demand for the sedan, as the online edition of the Nikkei business daily reported, with deliveries to be stopped once the existing inventories run out.

The export version of the sedan will continue to be manufactured at the Suzuka plant in Mie Prefecture, with an all-new Civic likely to be launched sometime in 2011. However, it's unclear whether Honda will sell the new Civic in Japan as well, but the company will most likely concentrate on the export targets to avoid injecting too much money in domestic market.

Civic sales were pretty low in Japan, where total numbers reached 182 Civics and 270 Civic Hybrids delivered to customers in October. Since 1972 when the model officially went on sale, Honda sold more than 3 million units, but demand constantly decreased in the last years mostly due to increased competition in the segment.

As for the future Civic, it is rumored that the model will use four-cylinder petrol and turbodiesel units, with power outputs ranging between 80 and 140 hp. The current 1.3l i-VTEC hybrid engine is expected to be featured in the new model as well, possibly with a few changes.

“We are taking more time to rethink the new Civic and all our models,” Honda CEO Takanobu Ito said back in 2009. “We had to revisit our development work and planning to comply with the change in the environment. The team is struggling. We are injecting more manpower to meet our target.”