The new generation CR-V appears likely to to become Honda’s top seller in the United States but a top executive isn’t ruling out the also recently redesigned Civic.
Data from just-auto‘s US analyst, Bill Cawthon, shows full year 2016 CR-V sales rose 3.4% year on year to 357,335 units from 345,367. December 2016 sales climbed 21.1% to 37,778, from 31,185 a year previously. Including ‘premium’ brand Acura, American Honda’s sales in 2016 rose 3.4% to 1,637,942. Total US light vehicle sales last year rose just 0.3% to 17,539,052 with some analysts forecasting the market has now hit a plateau with some cooling in prospect.
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Honda’s US unit has been gradually launching a fully redesigned Civic range since 2015. With hatchbacks, sourced from Honda’s Swindon plant in England, in showrooms from around the start of the fourth quarter, Civic sales rose 9.4% to 366,927 last year but dipped 4% to 31,482 last month. 2016’s lead over the sibling small SUV (compact utility vehicle or CUV in the US): just 9,592 units.
John Mendel, executive vice president of American Honda, told WardsAuto.com:”[There’s] a very good possibility [the CR-V will be on top] but the Civic will have more bullets in the gun as well, so we’ll see.”
More versions will aid the Civic remaining on top, he added. The sedan arrived late in 2015, the coupe early last year, the ‘British’ hatchback is just in at dealers while sporty Civic Si and Type R variants will be launched this year.
Mendel told WardsAuto the automaker has enough production capacity for Civic sales above the circa-367,000 sold last year.
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By GlobalData“The five-door is coming from the UK so we’re utilising capacity there. We can flex around on four-door/two-door [mix] and we can [lean on Japan for production] if we need to.”
The report noted Honda had also increased CR-V output, was expecting good sales of the latest fifth generation and now has three North American plants – in Ohio, Ontario and Indiana – assembling the model. But the Indiana plant also assembles the Civic sedan so if demand for both models spikes, some vehicles may have to come from Japan. Of the 366,927 Civics sold in the US in 2016, only 10,225 were imported, WardsAuto said.
A year ago, the automaker said Honda Manufacturing of Indiana (HMIN) would add CR-V production beginning in 2017 after output was transferred from Mexico to boost HR-V output at two plants in Mexico. HMIN would continue to produce the Civic sedan alongside the CR-V.
On this side of the Atlantic, Honda has regularly rejigged the mix at Swindon which has built various generations of Civic (some for the US), Accord and CR-V (also some for the US) and the previous generation of Jazz (Fit), a model which, for Europe, has now been sourced from Japan, China, the UK and, again, Japan.
After Swindon was named a global hub for Civic hatchback production, the CR-V for Europe initially was expected to come from Canada but, according to just-auto‘s PLDB product life and sourcing database, now will be exported from Japan: “Initially, Honda had intended to ship the car from Canada to Europe but these plans changed in February 2016. Europe’s CR-V will be built at what is officially known as ‘Saitama Factory Sayama Automobile Plant’.”
See also: Honda future model plans – a global analysis
