Honda has announced that its European production facility in the UK will become the global production hub for the next-generation Civic five door. For this, the automaker has pledged to invest £200 million ($295 million) in its flagship production facility in Europe, Honda of the UK Manufacturing (HUM).
Honda says the next-generation Civic five door will be produced for the European market as well as for key global markets. This means there’s a big chance the five-door Civic will reach US shores as well. There’s nothing official for now, but you know how the saying goes, there’s no smoke without fire.
The development of the European facility into a global manufacturing hub for the Civic means that the plant will increase Civic volumes while developing improved economies of scale.
The UK facility specializes in the production of the Civic model, which has been built there for more than 20 years. The £200 million investment will be for new production technologies and processes and will bring Honda’s total investment in HUM to over £2.2billion ($3.2 billion) since 1985.
“By establishing HUM as a global production facility for the Civic five door, Honda is demonstrating its long-term commitment to manufacturing in the UK and Europe,” said Jason Smith, Director of HUM. “As a global production facility for the Civic five door model we look forward to making the most of the opportunity to export this model not only to our European customers, but also, to key global markets,” he added.
As the Swindon plant will focus on Civic production, the next-generation CR-V SUV will be manufactured at Honda of Canada Manufacturing (HCM), in Ontario, with models destined for the European market to be imported from there.
Note: European-spec current-generation Honda Civic pictured
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