Honda’s recently redesigned Civic Hybrid sedan finally is a hot-seller in the United States after languishing in the shadow of rival Toyota’s Prius hybrid, according to WardsAuto.com.
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The motor trade publication said Honda’s US unit currently is seeing very lean supplies of the Civic Hybrid, which was updated last year – along with the rest of the range – for 2006.
“(Civic Hybrid inventory) is going to vary by dealer, but they are well under short supply – three days on the lot essentially,” John Mendel, senior vice president-auto operations, American Honda Motor, told WardsAuto.
He reportedly said that the success of the entire Civic lineup, where “demand (is) outstripping supply pretty readily,” can be credited with boosting Civic Hybrid sales.
“I think people realize that beyond (Civic being) a good-looking car, ‘I can also get a hybrid,’” he told WardsAuto.com. So we’re getting a lot of people who would consider (the) Civic anyway but are opting for a hybrid.”
According to the report, Mendel couldn’t say with certainty how many people are trading in a Prius for a Civic Hybrid, but he noted that Honda’s strategy of not having a separate body style for the car may be working in its favour.
That is in contrast to Europe, where the Civic Hybrid is a Japanese-built sedan but the volume petrol and diesel-powered models are UK-built hatchbacks. Other global markets get the ’06 Civic only as a sedan, though there have been hints that will change as other Honda units reportedly are asking for the UK-built hatch models.
“To the degree that people are polarised by (the ) Prius…they may look at another alternative for a hybrid, (and) we’ve got (the) Civic, which looks like a Civic,” Mendel told WardsAuto.
The report said Honda sold 1,780 Civic Hybrids in the US last month, a 31.6% increase year on year. Calendar year-to-date, sales are 96.1% ahead of a year ago, with 4,945 units sold.
In contrast, it added, Prius sales slipped 7.5% last month though, for the year to end February, sales are 12.3% ahead of the same period in 2005, to 14,201 units.
Mendel told WardsAuto.com that, with Civic models in such short supply, Honda is eyeing its capacity utilisation.
He declined to say when any of Honda’s North American plants would be expanded, adding Honda’s flexible manufacturing system allows it to shift various models to plants that may be underutilised.
“We continue studying the North American market to see where we can shift production to maximise the plants we have, not only in the US, but Canada and worldwide,” Mendel told WardsAuto.com, adding: “And then (Honda will) make a decision on whether we’ll either increase capacity, and (if so) where it’ll be.”
He also said that a decision to expand North American production likely will be made this year, but possibly not announced.
“What we don’t want to ever do is get into the situation where we have excess capacity, which is sitting there idling, not doing anything,” he told WardsAuto.com.
The report noted that, because of slowing sales, Honda announced in January it was cutting output of its large Pilot cross/utility vehicle, beginning in April and carrying through to December, resulting in a loss of up to 27,000 units from its Lincoln, Alabama, plant.
