Honda gears production in China more towards electric cars

Honda is closing a plant in China for the production of combustion vehicles and pausing production at another factory. Instead, the Japanese car manufacturer plans to open two new EV factories in China with its partners at the end of the year.

A plant for combustion engines operated jointly with GAC will be closed in October and production at another Honda combustion engine factory with Dongfeng will be interrupted from November, reports Reuters. This will reduce the annual capacity from 1.49 million to 1.2 million vehicles. There had already been rumours of a reduction in production capacity in China in March.

However, the reduction in capacity is said to be largely temporary, as Honda wants to focus production more strongly on electric cars. This is why Honda wants to open two new factories by the end of the year with the same two partners, GAC and Dongfeng, which will be used exclusively for the production of electric cars. This should bring China’s annual capacity back up to 1.44 million vehicles. The new factories are expected to produce the new electric car series ‘Ye’, which Honda developed specifically for the Chinese market and presented in April in the run-up to Auto China (see photo above). The new series was named after the Chinese character ‘烨’, which means ‘shining brightly’.

Japanese manufacturers Honda and Nissan have been very successful in China since the 2000s, but have lost ground as electric cars have gained increasing market share in China. They thus share the fate of Volkswagen, which has come under similar pressure, while purely Chinese manufacturers have become increasingly popular. Today, the Chinese manufacturer BYD, which specialises in new energy vehicles, is the best-selling brand in China.

reuters.com