Honda begins making sports sedan in China

Honda Motor Co. said August 19 that it has started to manufacture the Spirior sports sedan at a Chinese joint venture, and will release the new premium car to the Chinese market next month, AsiaPulse reported.

The 2.4-liter Spirior, known in Japan as the Accord, is being produced at the plant of Dongfeng Honda Automobile Co. in Wuhan, central China's Hubei province. The 2009 sales target of this new model is set at 15,000 units. This is the third model being produced at this joint venture after the CR-V SUV and the Civic sedan.

Meanwhile, the annual production capacity of the Wuhan factory was increased to 200,000 units from 120,000. As a result, Honda's overall annual capacity in China has risen to 610,000 units, which includes vehicles manufactured by another China venture Guangzhou Honda.

Honda Motor sold 50,647 vehicles in China in July, up 14.9 percent year on year. In the first seven months of the year, the Japanese carmaker and its Chinese ventures sold 304,459 vehicles in China, up 12.4 percent y/y, boosted by the hot-selling Honda City made by Guangzhou Honda.

Honda expects its China sales to increase 10 percent to 520,000 units in 2009. In July, Honda announced a plan to increase its annual output in China by 16.7 percent to 560,000 units by the end of this year.