Thursday, October 5, 2017

HONDA SHUTTERS SAYAMA PLANT TO PREPARE FOR EV PRODUCTION IN 2022











Honda CEO Takahiro Hachigo said the company would focus its manufacturing efforts on electric vehicles.

Japanese automaker Honda is shuttering its Sayama plant, north of Tokyo, in 2022 as the company shifts its focus to the production of electric vehicles.
CEO Takahiro Hachigo outlined the company’s plans today saying that due to sluggish auto sales in Japan, the company needed to reduce production levels and refocus on EV manufacturing to meet the ever-toughening demands of different markets around the globe.

The closure of Sayama pushes the company toward its goal of cutting capacity by 24% in Japan. It will shift the plant’s output to its site in nearby Yorii, as well as most of the employees. The Sayama plant was capable of producing more than 250,000 vehicles annually, as is the Yorii site.
The overall vehicle output will drop to 810,000 units from 1.06 million, Reuters reported.


“As we focus more on adopting electrification and other new technologies, we want to hone our vehicle manufacturing expertise in Japan and expand it globally,” CEO Takahiro Hachigo told a press conference.
The Yorii plant will also act as the center of electric vehicle production for the automaker, which has been slow to take on EVs as a critical part of its portfolio. However, it now wants two-thirds of its production to be electric vehicles by 2030.

“Japan needs to take a leading position in manufacturing, including in vehicle electrification,” said Hachigo. “We will consider how to apply these processes to other plants globally.”

Yorii will be positioned as a global center for electrified vehicle production. It will serve as a template for overseas manufacturing as Honda launches more hybrids and EVs overseas.

A longtime EV skeptic, Honda announced in June that it had established an Electric Vehicle Development Division to create EVs based on dedicated all-electric platforms. That is a departure from Honda’s current stance.
To date, Japan’s third-largest carmaker mostly has dabbled with small-volume cars for regulatory compliance while rivals such as Nissan rolled out mass-market nameplates, and others, such as Ford and Volkswagen, announced big plans for electrification across their lineups.

Toyota Motor Corp., another EV latecomer, joined the bandwagon last year with its own EV development division. And last week, it announced plans for a joint venture with Mazda Motor Corp. and supplier Denso Corp. to create an electric architecture.

Recent concept vehicles show what Honda has planned.
At the Frankfurt auto show last month, the company debuted its hatchback-style Urban EV Concept that previews a compact city runabout planned for sale in Europe in 2019.

At the Tokyo show later this month, Honda will unveil the Sports EV Concept, a small, rear-slung performance EV based off the same platform.
Honda also is developing an electric car for release in China next year.

Tale of two plants
Honda opened its cutting-edge Yorii factory in 2013 with capacity for 250,000 vehicles.

It makes the Vezel, known overseas as the HR-V subcompact crossover, as well as the Fit subcompact hatchback and derivatives including the Grace sedan and Shuttle wagon.

Yorii also makes the Civic for the domestic market.
Honda unveiled plans to build Yorii in 2006, and the plant was supposed to be churning out cars by 2010. But the global financial crisis upended that plan.

Construction started in 2007. Then the project was delayed twice as the economy fell apart and the rising yen challenged the wisdom of building a factory in high-cost Japan.

Former Honda President Takanobu Ito resurrected the project in 2010.
Yorii’s lines boast some of the latest production methods, with the company positioning it as a kind of petri dish for pioneering new manufacturing technologies.

At the opening of the Yorii plant, Honda said its more efficient manufacturing technologies slashed 30 percent off assembly costs, compared with the older Sayama plant.

Sayama, which has capacity for 250,000 vehicles a year, focuses on larger vehicles such as the Odyssey minivan, Accord Hybrid sedan, Jade wagon, Freed minivan and the Acura RLX.

Sayama’s vehicles will be shifted to Yorii or Honda’s Suzuka assembly plant in central Japan.

As part of the production shuffle, Honda will take full ownership of its minicar subsidiary Yachiyo Industry Co. It makes the sporty S660 minicar alongside commercial minivehicles.

 “Honda will largely evolve its production operations and product development,” Hachigo said.

“The automobile industry is undergoing an unprecedented and significant turning point in history. That’s why Honda is undertaking new technologies such as electrification and intelligence technologies.”

Like its primary rival, Toyota, Honda has been a late adopter of EVs. However, it has been making up for lost time. Last month at the Frankfurt auto show, the maker unveiled its Urban EV Concept, a small city car expected to go on sale in Europe in 2019.

DATA RECEIVED FROM HONDA AND NEWS BUREAUS.

WHEN WE LEARN MORE AND CAN VERIFY FUTURE EV
PRODUCTION WILL REPORT FINDINGS.

BRUCE HUBBARD
AUTO ADVISOR GROUP

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