With new products coming through, Honda UK boss David Hodgetts is looking to get desirability back into the brand as well as strengthening the ‘built in Britain’ message.
This will be led by ‘sporty’ derivatives of the new Civic hatchback which was launched in January and built at Honda’s English plant in Swindon.
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These will include a high performance Civic R and a ‘tourer’ style estate [wagon] model. Honda last had such a model in the Civic line three model generations ago when it shared the line with MG Rover’s 400.
Also highly probable is the UK introduction within the next three years of the NSX super car launched at the Detroit Motor Show at the beginning of the year.
Speaking at the Geneva show, Hodgetts said: “Honda has had a pretty tough time recently with the delay of new model introductions because of [the Japanese earthquake and Thai floods] which have been completely out of our control, and this has hurt our dealers.
“But they have been extremely patient and loyal and they are delighted with the new Civic. Now we need to get the brand back to where it belongs in terms of sporty, iconic models.”
Alongside the Civic, Honda also assembles the Jazz and CR-V models at Swindon. The redesigned CR-V goes into production there in August and Hodgetts added: “We now have to maximise those three platforms and get as many derivatives from them as we can.
“We also need to make greater play of the fact that they are built in Britain. Around 95% of the cars we sell in the UK are built in the country. How many other car companies can say that?”
