Small But Scrappy Honda Spain Mounting Comeback

MADRID – Honda Europe Spain has turned the corner after years of decline and is launching new products to maintain its momentum.

The Japanese brand saw a record 26,272 registrations in the pre-recession year of 2007, then posted five consecutive years of double-digit declines, bottoming out in 2012 with only 5,946 cars sold.

In 2013, registrations climbed 13.5% to 6,750, aided largely by the replacement of a 150-hp diesel engine in Civic and CR-V models with a 1.6L, 120-hp diesel that cost less to maintain and earned a tax break via carbon-dioxide emissions below 120 g/km.

Honda Spain had more success in 2014, with sales rising 11.4% to 7,520 to help the country’s car market recover more rapidly than those elsewhere in Western Europe.

Roger Solergibert, promoted in early 2014 from Honda Spain commercial manager to manager of the Honda Europe Spain Automobiles – a division separate from Honda’s motorbike and scooter business – predicts 8,300 deliveries this year and 10,000 in 2016.

Driving the increases, Solergibert says, is the refreshed ’15 Civic Sport unveiled last week, to be followed in the year’s second half by the Jazz subcompact (called the Fit in China, Japan and North America); two CUVs, the CR-V and HR-V; and the NSX hybrid sports car to be sold in limited numbers.

The new Civic going on sale in Spain next month will be offered with two gasoline engines making 100 or 142 hp in addition to the 120-hp 1.6L diesel introduced in 2013. It comes with the Honda Connect infotainment system and design changes including LED headlamps and taillights, new rear bumpers and a spoiler.

Solergibert predicts industrywide sales in Spain could approach 1 million units in 2015, and 1.2 million by 2020. That would be roughly 50% higher than the 790,961 light vehicles delivered in 2012, according to WardsAuto data.