Unofficial Honda FIT Forums - Another press announcement from Honda

Something different than the Hybrid Fit?

New Honda assembly plant to be in Midwest
AUTOMAKER TO INTRODUCE SMALL HYBRID MODEL
By John O'Dell
Los Angeles Times
Honda Motor, straining at the seams to meet demand for its cars and trucks, said Wednesday that it would build a new assembly plant in the Midwest and introduce a small hybrid gasoline-electric car as part of a $1.46 billion global expansion.

The Japanese automaker said it expects to be selling 2 million vehicles a year in North America by 2010, up from 1.6 million last year.

``We need a new factory in North America because we were quite stretched while demand keeps on growing,'' Honda President Takeo Fukui said at a Tokyo news conference. ``The higher gasoline price is gradually shifting U.S. consumers to fuel-efficient models.''

Honda is one of several Asian manufacturers adding capacity in North America even as market leaders General Motors and Ford Motor are retrenching.

Both GM and Ford have seen sales slip dramatically in the last two decades in the face of relentless competition from overseas automakers.

``These expansions by foreign automakers reflect the growth and competition of the past decade,'' said Matt Vicenzi, an ****yst at J.D. Power Automotive Forecasting in Westlake Village. ``It also shows that the U.S. market is robust and profitable.''

To help meet its North American sales goal, Honda said it will deliver a new hybrid model and a new four-cylinder diesel engine in 2009.

Honda said its new diesel would be one of the cleanest on the planet, capable of meeting not only the tough new federal emissions standards that take effect in 2007 but also stricter California standards.

The automaker said its new hybrid would be a unique model rather than an extension of an existing line, as are the Civic and Accord hybrids. The new model will be smaller and less expensive than the Civic, said Richard Colliver, executive vice president of American Honda Motor in Torrance.

Honda expects its new hybrid to add 100,000 sales a year in the United States and 100,000 in Japan, where the car will be built.

Honda also said it would stop production of the two-seat Honda Insight hybrid because of poor sales. Honda sold 666 Insights in the United States last year, compared with 25,864 Civic Hybrids and 16,826 Accord Hybrids.

Through March, Honda sold 17 Insights this year in 11 Bay Area counties. Toyota dealers, in contrast, have sold 2,158 Prius models in the region, according to Polk figures.