Honda Motor president Takeo Fukui said on Tuesday there were signs the key US market had bottomed out since the start of April.
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Nonetheless Honda’s North America output plunged by over half in February from the same month a year earlier, sliding for the fourth month in a row.
Fukui was speaking at a ceremony marking the start of construction of a joint venture plant for lithium-ion batteries for hybrids.
Honda and GS Yuasa, Asia’s biggest car battery maker, said they planned to make lithium-ion batteries for hybrid cars from 2010 at the plant in Kyoto in central Japan, Reuters reported.
Blue Energy, held 51% by GS Yuasa and 49% by Honda, will spend JPY25bn (US$255m) to build the plant with capacity to supply batteries for 200,000 to 300,000 cars, a Honda spokeswoman said. The JV was agreed last December.
GS Yuasa has a separate li-ion battery venture with Mitsubishi Motors and Mitsubishi Corporation, which mainly supplies electric vehicles to Mitsubishi Motors. GS Yuasa president Makoto Yoda said at the event the company plans to focus on supplying Honda and Mitsubishi instead of searching for more partner automakers.
