Following a recent announcement from Toyota predicting an increase in North American production this summer after the problems created by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Honda today said that its North American factories would return to near-normal production for all vehicles except the new 2012 Civic by this August.
Like Toyota, Honda Motor Corp. was struck hard by the interruption of the flow of automotive parts from Japanese factories, and was forced to cut down production to half at most of its plants since April. But now the company says the supply of parts from Japan has improved significantly and as a result, it will ramp up production of most models including the 4-cylinder Accord, CR-V and Acura RDX, as well as all V-6 models such as the Accord, Accord Crosstour, Odyssey, Pilot, Ridgeline, and the Acura TL, MDX and ZDX.
“The light at the end of the tunnel is glowing brighter for us, represented by this significant improvement in our production situation,” said John Mendel, executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co., Inc. in a statement.
The only exception is the hugely important from a sales perspective, 2012 Civic, whose production will continue at a reduced rate of around 50 percent due to the limited supply of key components from Japan. The new Civic is built in Greensburg, Indiana, and Alliston, Ontario.
The Japanese automaker said that it expects the parts problem for the newly launched Civic to be solved in the coming months with full production to resume by “sometime in the fall”.
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