DETROIT – Honda Motor Co. Ltd.’s Civic Hybrid finally is a hot-seller after languishing in the shadow of competitor Toyota Motor Corp.’s Prius hybrid-electric vehicle.
Honda is seeing very lean supplies of the Civic Hybrid, which was redesigned last year along with the entire Civic lineup for the ’06 model year.
“(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 Co. Inc., says here at an Automotive Press Assn. event.
He says 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 says.
“So we’re getting a lot of people who would consider (the) Civic anyway but are opting for a hybrid.”
Mendel can’t say with certainty how many people are trading in a Prius for a Civic Hybrid, but he says Honda’s strategy of not having a separate body style for the car may be working in its favor.
Honda Civic Hybrid
“To the degree that people are polarized by (the ) Prius…they may look at another alternative for a hybrid, (and) we’ve got (the) Civic, which looks like a Civic.”
Honda sold 1,780 Civic Hybrids in the U.S. last month, a 31.6% increse compared with prior-year. Calendar year-to-date, the vehicle is running 96.1% ahead of year-ago, with 4,945 units sold.
In contrast, Prius sales slipped 7.5% last month. However, through February, sales of the Prius are 12.3% ahead of like-2005, to 14,201 units.
With Civic models in such short supply, Mendel says Honda is exploring the issue of capacity utilization.
He declines to say when any of Honda’s North American plants will be expanded, adding Honda’s flexible manufacturing system allows the auto maker to shift various models to plants that may be underutilized.
“We continue studying the North American market to see where we can shift production to maximize the plants we have, not only in the U.S., but Canada and worldwide,” Mendel says. “And then (Honda will) make a decision on whether we’ll either increase capacity, and (if so) where it’ll be.”
He says 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 says.
Due to slowing sales, Honda announced in January it was cutting output of its 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, AL, plant.
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