The Honda Accord will get a small facelift in China. Most changes are up front and at the back. Interesting to see it that the new car will get more chrome yet again, Chinese car buyers still want more bling so Honda has to give. The Accord is made in China by the Guangzhou-Honda joint venture.

Current Honda Accord. Price starts at 186.800 yuan and ends at 342.800 yuan. engines: 2.0, 2.4 and 3.5 V6. All engines will continue in the facelifted Accord and price will be about the same. The facelifted Accord is expected to hit the China car market in the second half of this year.

More chrome is good.

More chrome again at the back…

Via: 163.com.

Japanese carmaker Honda Motor Co plans to double sales in China to about 1.2 million vehicles by 2015 through an expanded local lineup and ramped-up production.

The company’s China chief Seiji Kuraishi announced at a recent news conference that Honda will introduce more than 10 new and revamped models to China from 2013 to 2015 to support sales growth.

Local content

He noted that the company will also develop cars especially for the Chinese market and increase purchases of components from local suppliers to lower cost.

Honda will unveil two concept cars designed for China during the upcoming Beijing Auto Show, he said.

Without elaborating, he added that the carmaker is considering building a local design facility.

Honda now has a joint venture in South China with Guangzhou Automobile Group with annual output of 480,000 units and another with Dongfeng Motor Corp in the central province of Hubei that is able to produce 240,000 vehicles a year.

The company said that a new Dongfeng Honda plant will be operational in July that will have annual output of 100,000 units a year at the outset. The number could rise to 240,000 units depending on market demand.

Its joint venture in Guangzhou will also raise capacity by adding a new production line scheduled to begin operation by 2014, it said.

Sign of change

The latest plan is seen as a sign that Honda will change its strategy in China, considered conservative by industry analysts, that resulted slower growth than the overall market over the past several years.

China’s car market increased rapidly from 2009 to 2011, bringing unexpected benefits to many foreign carmakers. Barely affected by the financial crisis that began in 2008, continued growth was largely driven by tax breaks on cars with 1.6-liter engines and smaller.

Honda admitted that its projections for the Chinese market were off target.

“The company didn’t expect the Chinese government to take strong stimulus measures to support the auto market, which then went into a golden period of development, ” Kuraishi said.

Fit and City

Honda plans to retool, double annual sales

The company had only two small models – the Fit and the City – that qualified for incentives and did not introduce new models that meet the criteria, he said.

The poor performance continued in the first three months of this year as Honda reported a 10.6 percent year-on-year fall in its China sales to 148,000 units amid a weakening market and fierce competition.

The decline came at the same time when its Japanese peer Toyota sold 211,500 vehicles in China, up 1.8 percent from a year earlier, and Nissan’s sales surged 12.2 percent to 334,400 units.

Analysts said Honda’s sluggish sales were mainly caused by the fading popularity of its previous best sellers, the Accord and CR-V.

The CR-V is at the end of its life circle and sales have dropped significantly, said Jenny Gu, a senior analyst at LMC Automotive.

The Accord now has more strong rivals in the mid-sized sedan segment and also faces pressure from entry-level luxury vehicles, she said.

As fuel prices rise and the country is about to implements stricter standards on fuel consumption, Honda said it will greatly improve the efficiency of its products in China and make every vehicle the most efficient in its segment.

The company said it will use its latest powertrain technology on all China-made models by 2015. In addition, it will start making hybrid vehicles in China, but the timetable is still unclear. The carmaker will first import three hybrid vehicles – the CR-Z, Fit and Insight – beginning this year

Hybrid future

“We believe that in the near future China will certainly become the world’s biggest hybrid vehicle market,” Kuraishi said.

The company also plans to make an all-electric car at its joint venture in Guangzhou by the end of 2012.

Acura’s plans

Under the new medium-term plan by Honda, the company’s luxury division Acura plans to also bring new products to change its weak sales performance.

Though it arrived in China in 2006, Acura only sells a few thousand cars in China, and its Japanese counterpart Lexus sold more than 50,000 units and Infiniti imported nearly 20,000.

The company said that it will bring the Acura ILX and RDX to China this year and the flagship model RLX next year to add its current lineup of only four vehicles, all with large engines surpassing 3.5 liters in displacement.

Via: ChinaDaily.

The first spy shots of the facelifted Honda Odyssey, it will debut at the Beijing Auto Show later this month and it will be listed on the Chinese car market soon thereafter. The Honda Odyssey is made in China by the Guangzhou-Honda joint venture.

Front and back were updated, nice new chrome part in the grill, new bumpers and new lights. Power comes from a 2.4 with 180hp, mated to a 5-speed automatic. Price will range from 220.000 to 280.000 yuan.

Via: Autohome.

http://www.autohome.com.cn/news/201204/315899.html

Still live from Shanghai, China. Here we have a very fine pink Honda Fit, seen by me on a car market in the northern part of this great city (not as great as my own Beijing but close enough..). The Honda Fit is made in China by the Guangzhou-Honda joint venture, and a fine little car it is. Other modifications include a body kit and very racy tires and alloys, no doubt this Shanghai-Fit is a fast one…

The very first spy shots of the Honda Insight hybrid testing on Chinese roads. Last month we saw the CR-Z hybrid doing the tests and in August last year we heard Honda was planning to make both cars in China, likely under the Guangzhou-Honda joint venture.

Chinese media however now says the Honda Insight will be imported. This seems very unlikely since the Insight will in that case become far too expensive compared to the Toyota Prius which will be locally made by the FAW-Toyota joint venture.

Things are thus still a bit unclear, we’ll keep you posted…

Via: Sina.com.

Spy shots from the Honda CR-Z hybrid coupe testing in China. The CR-Z ain’t on the Chinese car market yet but Honda seems to have some plans. Big question for now is: will it be imported or locally made?

When Honda wants to enjoy new tax-brakes for hybrid cars it has to produce locally. If they do, they will likely do so under the Guangzhou-Honda joint venture. It might be imported first and made locally later. All a bit uncertain at the moment, we’ll keep you posted.

The Chinese source where I got this story from thought the car on pics was the new Honda Civic. It ain’t, it is the CR-Z indeed. Thanks to commenter Mr. Matthew for being more awake than I was…

Sohu.com.

The Chinese Honda Odyssey will get a facelift. The Odyssey is one of the most poplar MPV’s on the Chinese car market and is always in fierce competition with the Buick GL8. The facelifted car will debut at the Beijing Auto Show in April.

The current Odyssey, made in China by the Guangzhou-Honda joint venture. In June last year we heard that Honda applied for patent in China on the US-version of the Odyssey, which is a much bigger and more up-market car. Honda will likely bring that one to China as well, as an import and under a different name, aimed at the high-end MPV market. And to make the party complete, Honda will also start building the Elysion MPV in China at the Dongfeng-Honda joint venture.

Price of the current Odyssey starts at 199.800 yuan and ends at 279.3oo yuan. Only engine is a 2.4 with 180hp and 218nm. Engine will continue in the new car, price will be about the same.

Via: Sohu.com.

Chinese-made cars have quietly arrived in North America for the first time, but without the bamboo dashboards and quirky names that have adorned them at recent auto shows.

Japanese automaker Honda is crossing the threshold by importing subcompact cars into Canada from one of its plants in China. This month, Honda Canada began receiving its smallest model, the Fit, from China instead of Japan, as part of a strategy to produce more vehicles outside its home country.

The decision allows Honda to eke out higher profit in a segment of the auto market where margins are extremely thin, especially since the high value of the yen cuts into all Japanese automakers’ overseas operations.

“The yen has been getting stronger and stronger,” Jerry Chenkin, executive vice president of Honda Canada, said on Tuesday.

Few car shoppers are likely to notice the change, and there is no expectation that Chinese-made cars are destined for the United States anytime soon. But the Honda imports are significant because vehicles are among the few categories of consumer products in North America for which manufacturers had not turned to China to try to cut costs.

“There’s been much talk about Chinese cars being sold in North America, but we hadn’t seen that yet,” said Michelle Krebs, a senior analyst with Edmunds.com, an automotive research Web site. “These are from a well-known, major global automaker, so that eliminates some of the challenges that face Chinese automakers.”

All the major automakers have plants in China, which they generally use to make vehicles to sell there. Only 3 percent, or 580,000, of the vehicles built in China last year were exported. Many automakers are reluctant to use that capacity to supply other countries because they want to maximize sales in China, now the world’s largest car market.

Mr. Chenkin said that the move had relatively little to do with direct costs. He declined to comment about wage differences between Japan and China.

“From what I understand, in terms of the cost of production for the Fit, the difference between China and Japan is not significant,” he said. “But the exposure of the yen exchange rate is of concern to Honda and other manufacturers.”

Lower disposable incomes and higher gasoline prices in Canada mean that small cars like the Fit are more popular there than in the United States. Honda’s profit on the Fit is further squeezed by a 6.1 percent import duty, while many competing models enter Canada duty-free because they are made in Mexico or the United States.

Honda is building a plant in Mexico that is scheduled to start assembling the Fit for the United States and other countries in early 2014. Honda is likely to use that plant to supply Canada as well, most likely making the importing from China a temporary measure.

Honda has been exporting the Fit from China to 27 countries, mainly in Europe where it is sold as the Jazz, for about five years, so there is no concern in Canada about the quality of its production, Mr. Chenkin said.

“We are fully confident that these vehicles meet all Honda standards,” he said. The company has imported electrical power generators to Canada from Honda plants in China for some time without encountering quality issues or customer resistance, he said.

John Mendel, executive vice president of American Honda, said that there were no plans to supply dealers in the United States with Chinese-made Fits.

Ms. Krebs said Honda and other automakers would have a more difficult time selling cars assembled in China to Americans than to Canadians and Europeans. Although made-in-China products are common in the United States, most cost a small fraction of the price of a car. Even established automakers like Honda are hesitant to risk turning off buyers with Chinese imports, particularly because the United States is an important source of profit and prestige.

“Canada’s always been much more open to cars from places that it was not acceptable for the U.S.,” Ms. Krebs said. “Honda has a production system that it uses every place in the world. Consumers can be pretty confident that the same standards apply.”

Analysts note that American car shoppers were largely skeptical of Japanese and Korean vehicles in their early days here and would tend to react similarly to models made in China, at least initially. A study earlier this year by the consulting firm GfK Automotive found that about one-third of Americans were open to buying a car from China. Younger respondents were more amenable.

The Fit is a relatively small-volume car in Canada, with sales of 2,802 through November. That is down 55 percent from the same period in 2010, largely because of supply shortages in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March.

Honda has a large manufacturing presence in Canada, where it builds the Civic, several Acura models and engines. It is hiring an additional 400 workers in Alliston, Ontario, where production of CR-V sport utility vehicles will begin next month.

Via: NewYorkTimes.

Honda will bring the Fit EV to the Guangzhou Auto Show. The full electric will be made in China by the Guangzhou-Honda joint venture. Listing is expected for sometime early 2012 and that will make the Fit EV the first electric car made in China by a Chinese-foreign joint venture.

The electric motor has decent power: 136hp and 250nm, mated to a 6kw lithium battery. Top speed is 90km/h, range about 160km. Charging on standard 120-volt takes a long 12 hours, with 240-volt it takes 6 hours and with a special supercharger only two hours.

Techspec fine and fun but the real question will be the price. Can Guangzhou-Honda make it cheap enough to sell to the masses? Even with all subsidies included electric cars are still expensive in China.

Other thingy that slightly matters is the complete lack of a charging-infrastructure… All taken, I don’t think the Fit EV will be a success.

Via: Autohome.

The Honda City will get a facelift for the Chinese market, the new car will debut at the Guangzhou Auto Show later this month. The Honda City is made in China by the Guangzhou-Honda joint venture. Biggest changes are up front with a new grille, bumper and spoiler.

Current Honda City. Enginewise nothing will change; 1.5 or 1.8, mated to a 5-speed auto or 5-speed manual. Price of the current car starts at 75.900 yuan and ends at 149.800 yuan. Prices for the facelifted car will be almost the same.

Facelifted City. Back almost completely redesigned, compare with current car:

Via: 163.com.