Honda is cutting production at its Swindon plant because of a shortage of parts available from earthquake-hit Japan.The manufacturer confirmed this morning that it is halving production at its UK site, whose models include the Civic, Jazz and CR-V.
Ken Keir, executive vice-president of Honda Motor Europe, said, “We’ve taken the decision to reduce our production volumes at HUM as it enables us to continue with our manufacturing activities, thus minimising the impact on Honda customers, dealers and associates. We appreciate everyone’s understanding, customers and dealers, during these challenging times.”
Honda insists that the “vast majority” of parts used in Swindon are sourced in Europe. But with some of the firm’s Japanese parts supply factories still struggling to resume full production, the firm has been forced to cut Swindon to 50 per cent of its normal volumes, starting next week.
Autocar understands the components in short supply are mainly electronics.
Swindon operates a flexible working policy, and Honda says it will use this to recover the reduced volume via ‘banked hours’. The plant’s 3000 workers will be kept on full pay.
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