Someone in our TOV forums posted this in a thread. It contains some important information on the new Accord which is expected to debut early next year in the U.S. For Asia, it is expected the new Accord will debut either end of next year or early 2014. The asian Accords should be getting variants of the engines fitted to the U.S. Accords.
(On Tuesday of this week, AHM's president, Mr. Iwamura addressed all American Honda employees via teleconference. He basically talked about the difficult times Honda has been through this past year (with the earthquake and floods). Near the end of his speech, he addressed some topics that we see raised here at ToV quite often. I thought you would like to see what he said. Here is an excerpt from his talk.)
"For the Honda brand, this fall we launch the most critical model in our lineup an all-new Accord. The 2013 Accord will again be the unquestioned leader in the mid-size segment. And by the end of this year, we will introduce a minor model change of Civic. Despite the negative comments from media, Civic is the best-selling compact car over the past six months. But our goal is not only great sales, but true leadership in the compact segment. So, we pulled forward the MMC to make some key changes, including interior and exterior design refinements and ride and handling issues.
There also has been concern that Honda has lost its leadership in engine technology. But with the new Accord, we will begin to roll out our new Earth Dreams Powertrain Series over the next 3 to 4 years. This will include new direct injection engines, and a series of new transmissions that will result in both higher performance and higher fuel economy to improve our competitiveness. For example, the new CVT transmission for the next Accord will have a very sporty feeling.
Over the past 18 months, we have invested more than $1.7 billion dollars in our existing operations. That also includes adding second shifts and installing new equipment. As a result, during the next three years, we will significantly increase production volume in North America.
Importantly, in the coming years we will centralize the critical leadership role in our North American auto plants. This means our local plants will mature certain production processes and then share this know-how with Honda plants around the world. Up to now, this leadership role has been conducted in Japan. But we will challenge to do it in North America.
Finally, based on the larger S-E-D leadership role in North America, our Export Sales Division will be ramping up auto exports. This fall, we will reach the one million mark in total U.S. vehicle exports. And we will celebrate this achievement with great pride.
In short, Honda associates in the U.S., Canada and Mexico are developing additional capabilities to take even greater responsibility for meeting the needs of customers in North America and around the world.
This is an exciting time to be at Honda. And I am proud and happy to be with you to lead American Honda into the future.
Thank you."
3 comments:
Any idea or leads as to why the new Civics for Malaysia is just simply not in existence?
Most probably it is delayed due to the massive flooding in Thailand last year. The Honda R&D facility was literally under 6 ft of water and they are just starting to get back to normal operations.
My theory is that since hybrids are selling like hotcakes in Malaysia they are concentrating on that selling hybrid models (Insight, Jazz, CRZ) for Malaysia while once the Thailand factory is up running they are making the Civic and City allocated to other countries to make up for lost time.
Also, maybe we will get the updated Civic when it comes out, haha.
Post a Comment