House struggles to keep up with electric transition running
Honda plans to halve its production capacity of engines in a factory in the Chinese southern city of Guangzhou, in a context of growing difficulties in the automotive sector that anticipates the increasingly sudden passage to electric vehicles in the nearby country. This was stated by officials from the second Japanese car manufacturer, explaining that the expected reduction in the output in the Guangzhou plant in the Dongfeng Honda Engine, a joint venture with a local producer, would have an impact on about 30% of the sales of petrol vehicles in China.
Based on early details, at the end of this month Honda will reduce the production lines of engines from two to one at the system to halve the assembly capacity of the engines that produce 520,000 units per year. The Azienda del Greente continues to cross a difficult moment on the Chinese market due to the intensification of competition on the prices and the rise of local electric vehicles, with a decline in sales in 2024 by about 30% compared to the previous year, at a level of about 850,000 cars, which represents the minimum in the last ten years. To optimize production in China, since last year Honda has closed or temporarily suspended the activities in three of its seven car assembly factories in the Asian country.
