And the restructuring of their Turkish manufacturing operations.
After decades of operation, Japanese marque Honda has made the shocking announcement that its plant in Swindon, UK will be closing its doors permanently by 2021. The Swindon facility presently makes models like the CR-V, Jazz, Civic Hatch & Civic Type R, with an annual production number of 150,000 cars.
With some 3,500 people under its employ, Honda was forced to make the difficult decision to shut down its Swindon factory after it weighed in the considerable expenditures the company would have to face in the light of electrification. That’s been cited as the primary motivation behind what Honda is calling a ‘restructuring of its global manufacturing network.’
“In light of the unprecedented changes that are affecting our industry, it is vital that we accelerate our electrification strategy and restructure our global operations accordingly. As a result, we have had to take this difficult decision to consult our workforce on how we might prepare our manufacturing network for the future. This has not been taken lightly and we deeply regret how unsettling today’s announcement will be for our people.” – Katsushi Inoue, President, Honda Motor Europe
The restructuring isn’t limited to just Swindon though, as Honda’s manufacturing operations in Turkey are set to see some changes too. Come 2021, the Turkish facility will no longer assemble the Civic saloon, though it’s said that they’ll just make some other Honda models instead. That plant currently makes about 38,000 cars annually.
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