Honda has got to be happy that it has a hot selling compact car to take some of the pain out of the slowing minivan and SUV markets. Hurt by the sky-high price of gasoline, both the Odyssey and Pilot, both recently redesigned, are sitting on dealers lots longer than Honda would like. In order to match production with consumer demand, Honda will close its plant in Lincoln, Alabama for two days next month and cut second shift production at the plant every Friday in August through October. Displaced workers can choose to take either unpaid time off or use paid vacation leave. Some of that unused capacity will be taken up by the Ridgeline, which will now be assembled at the Lincoln plant instead of in Ontario where it is currently being built.
The Civic, on the other hand, will see its production boosted at the East Liberty, Ohio plant and in Alliston, Ontario, where capacity will be available due to the Ridgeline's departure. Score another point for Honda's modular manufacturing techniques.
As domestic automobile manufacturers cut production and lay off workers because they were caught off-guard when consumer buying habits switched to more fuel-efficient vehicles, Honda will effortlessly shuffle its production to meet U.S. demand for small cars. Without cutting any jobs in North America, Honda will move assembly of the Honda Pilot SUV and Honda Ridgeline pickup from Alliston, Ontario, to Lincoln, Alabama. This move will allow the Japanese automaker to increase production of the fuel-efficient Honda Civic in its Canadian plant. Later this year, Honda is expected to add another 2,000 jobs as it begins to build Civics in Indiana, as well. That plant will be Honda's seventh in North America. Honda has sold 34,163 units of the Civic in North America through April of this year, which is 8.2% more Civics sold on average per day than in 2007. For comparison's sake, Toyota has sold 32,435 Corollas, Ford has sold 23,850 Foci and Chevy has sold 18,636 Cobalts so far this year.
