Honda plans to start manufacturing, as distinct from assembling, diesel engines at its plant in Swindon, UK, in about a year’s time, according to the company’s press relations head Paul Ormond.
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He was commenting on a weekend Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper report, cited by Reuters, that said Honda plans to transfer part of an existing engine production line in Japan to Swindon, and that it has already built assembly lines inside the British plant.
But Ormond told just-auto that Honda already assembles diesel engines in the UK, and has done so for some time, using kits from Japan. Cylinder blocks, for example, come from Honda’s own foundries and the injection systems are supplied by Bosch. He suggested the only partially correct Japanese report referred to the transfer of casting operations to the UK
He said that Honda would eventually move to full manufacture in the UK “in time, I would say a year or more away”.
The Japanese report said full engine production would have capacity of 20,000 to 30,000 units a year in the UK and that Honda was also reported to be planning to increase diesel engine output from its two plants in Japan from the current level of around 70,000 units a year.
