FARMINGTON, PA – As Japanese competitor Toyota Motor Corp. prepares to launch the Tundra, possibly its most credible entry to date in the U.S. fullsize pickup segment, an American Honda Motor Co. Inc. official says his company has no plans to counter it.
“Why?” asks John Mendel, senior vice president-automotive operations for American Honda.
Mendel says he doesn’t see Honda building body-on-frame, fullsize pickups any time soon because it goes against the auto maker’s strategy to market fuel-efficient vehicles. Plus conventional fullsize pickups are the domain of Detroit-based General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and the Chrysler Group.
“Toyota’s been on that path,” the former Ford executive says during a recent Acura media event. “We’re fine with Ridgeline,” Honda’s compact unibody truck that went on sale last year and has been selling well.
Doing even better in the wake of high fuel prices is Honda’s Fit subcompact hatchback. Since hitting the U.S. market in late April, the auto maker has sold 15,922 units in the U.S., according to Ward’s data. Honda says it could sell more but is seriously capacity-constrained due to global demand.
Mendel says it’s possible American Honda could import the Fit (also known as the Jazz in some markets) from China, where it is being built at the expanded Honda Automobile China Co. Ltd. export-only plant. But that is not in the auto maker’s current plan.
The Fit/Jazz models built in China currently are exported to countries such as Brazil, Russia, India and Australia. Last year, Honda in China began shipping models to Europe. Export Fit/Jazz cars built in Japan are targeted for Asia and the U.S.
Mendel says the universally high price of gas and the fact the Fit/Jazz is sold in so many other countries makes it difficult to get extra units for North America. “The small-car segment is huge in Europe, China and Japan, so we’re kind of a distant cousin.”
However, if at some point China were able to supply the U.S. with the Fit, Mendel does not believe quality would be an issue, noting the cars are well made. Plus, consumers are not as critical about products made in China as they once were.
“We’re probably more of a global society now than we give ourselves credit for,” he says. “I don’t often pick things up and turn them over anymore and go, ‘China?’”
