Fewer Honda Sedans Emerging From Midwest After Production Cut

Two Honda plants in Indiana and Ohio bear the brunt of a decision made last spring to tap the brakes on Civic and Accord production. At the start of the month, Honda of America suspended the second shift on one of two lines at Ohio’s Marysville Assembly Plant, the result of flagging sales that show no signs of reversal.

While Honda categorizes the move as temporary, the second shift’s return will have to wait “a few years.”

Details of the shift cut come from Honda spokesman Chris Abbruzzese. In a message to Motor1, he claimed the shift cut will not impact production of the Acura TLX and ILX, which also call Marysville home.

“While the one line that was affected by the temporary shift reduction did manufacture Accord, CR-V, ILX and TLX, the production adjustment will primarily affect Accord and Civic, built at the Marysville Auto Plant and Honda Manufacturing of Indiana (HMIN), respectively,” he wrote. “This impacts HMIN because both MAP [Marysville] and HMIN build CR-V, so we have the flexibility to shift some production of CR-V to HMIN. This does not impact Acura production at this time.”

Two shifts will continue on Marysville’s Line 2, Abbruzzese said, adding that the decision is all “about maintaining Honda’s sales discipline and smart management of our business by aligning supply with current market demand.” The automaker plans to maintain “a robust sedan business,” he said.

Civic production also takes place at a plant in Ontario, Canada. While Honda’s assertion that the second Line 1 shift at Marysville will return could be viewed with suspicion, the automaker has promised to move production of Civics currently built in the UK and Turkey to North American plants in 2021. That has everything to do with streamlining and achieving a 100 percent plant utilization rate.

In February, Honda CEO Takahiro Hachigo said the move would mean North Americans will source all of their Civics from within the region.

In the U.S., Accord sales fell 5.9 percent through July, mirroring declines seen by other players in the segment. The model’s post-recession high water mark came in 2014. The Civic, on the other hand, had a boffo month of July, with sales rising 10.9 percent, year over year. This summertime performance wasn’t enough to budge its year-to-date tally into the black, however — Civic sales are down 2.1 percent through the end of last month. The best sales year in the model’s U.S. history was 2017.

[Images: Chris Tonn/TTAC, Honda]