We heard the rumors about Honda planning to put an end to the Crosstour, but now it’s official. The Japanese brand announced on Wednesday it will cease production of the Accord-based model at its East Liberty Plant in Ohio after the 2015 model year.

What’s ironic about Honda’s latest defeat is that, when its Acura brand tried to replicate the BMW X6’s success it failed, but when BMW lifted a page from Honda’s Crosstour book with the 3-Series GT, it did fine…

Apparently, Honda has decided to abandon odd niches and focus on what it does best; building popular mainstream cars like SUVs and regular crossovers. In addition to the recent introduction of the refreshed CR-V, over the next year, Honda will strengthen its lineup with the all-new 2016 HR-V, a new 2016 Pilot, and the next generation Ridgeline truck.

“The Crosstour, introduced in 2010, served a positive role in helping the Honda brand target crossover buyers,” said John Mendel, executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co. in a statement.

“However, the crossover segment has evolved and we believe the all-new 2016 Honda HR-V launching later this spring will create new value for crossover shoppers and play a more significant role as a gateway model for the Honda brand to drive light truck sales growth. This move will allow the East Liberty Plant to focus on meeting demand for the CR-V and a refreshed 2016 Acura RDX and, as announced last month, expand light truck production in early 2017 with the Acura MDX,” he added.

As part of this reshuffling, and in order to boost SUV and truck production capacity in the States, Honda said it will also move production of the Accord Hybrid from the Marysville Auto Plant in Ohio to the Sayama Plant in Japan.

“The transfer of the Accord Hybrid from the Marysville Auto Plant (MAP) to Honda’s Sayama Plant in Japan, will better optimize our global production capabilities, enabling MAP to focus on its significant role in producing popular models including the Honda Accord Sedan and Coupe and the Acura TLX and ILX performance sedans. ILX production began at MAP in February 2015,” said Mendel.

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