Japanese car giant Honda announced it would slash its British vehicle production by 10% because of faltering demand, but said workers’ jobs were safe.
Honda, Japan’s second-biggest car maker, will cut output by 22,000 units of a popular Civic model at its factory in Swindon, Wiltshire, for four months from December.
“The economy is slowing in Europe and we have to adjust our production in line with sluggish demand there,” said Honda spokeswoman Akemi Ando.
Honda yesterday became the first car manufacturer in Britain to extend production cuts into next year after it increased the scale of its reductions.
The British operation of Japan’s second-biggest carmaker will cut production by another 10,000 vehicles, extending short-time working through to March. Previously it had set out plans to cut its output by 22,000.
This year Honda had planned to produce 228,000 cars at its factory near Swindon, where it makes the Civic and the CR-V four-wheel drive. Honda said that it did not plan to cut jobs among the 4,800 workforce there.
Honda’s move follows a series of production cuts across most of Britain’s car industry and comes as automotive chiefs acknowledged that the slowdown may hit global operations much harder than had been feared.
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