Honda will launch 10 more car models in China by 2015 and expects sales in the country to double over the same period.
The Japanese carmaker is looking to China to help it recover after last year’s production was badly affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan followed by floods in Thailand last year. Its global output plummeted 20% to 2.91m cars.
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Kuraishi Seiji, head of the company’s operations in China, said Honda had been too cautious in the country. He added: “We will step up efforts to bring in new products developed for the Chinese market.”
New models will include small cars specifically for China.
Honda makes cars in partnership with Dongfeng Motor and Guangzhou Automobile. It sold 617,764 cars in China last year, compared with Volkswagen’s 2.26m and GM’s 2.55m.
To help improve Honda’s competitiveness, Seiji also wants to aggressively cut procurement costs and lower vehicle selling prices in China where small cars remain a major growth driver.
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