A Bright Light

The 2013 Accord is expected to be a key model for Honda's success in 2012-2013

Honda's President Takanobu Ito forecasts that business results at Japan's third biggest carmaker will climb to the highest they have ever been in at least 5 years, lead by the sales of the Accord and Civic models in North America. The 2013 Accord, 2013 Civic and CR-V will help Honda increase US sales by 24% to 1.43 million units in 2012. According to Ito, business results in the year ending March 2013 will recover to the levels achieved before the massive slump caused by the failure of the Lehman Brothers. Sales will climb to above 4 million cars for the first time. Ito also says that Honda's North American sales will lead the recovery. 

Honda's stock in Tokyo has steadily gained up to 15% this year already, the best performance of the top 3 automakers in Japan. Compared to last year's 27%, Honda is making steady strides. Adding to this, Honda's operating income will double to $7.6 billion dollars in the next fiscal year after shrinking 52% since the collapse of the Lehman Brothers. 

Although Honda is in a good position to recapture lost market share, it should be noted that they are not the only one in this position. Hyundai, albeit strong, has seen production shortages due to their plants working at full capacity and that issue will be addressed while GM and Ford have steadily increased their market share this year. 

Ito expects China to be a forerunner in aiding Honda's sales. Honda is expecting a 20% increase in sales to 750 000 units in 2012. Honda is also planning to resume production at its Thailand assembly plants in April.

Locally at home in Japan, Honda is revising strategy so that all the local Japanese factories will focus primarily on building minicars/keicars. The new N-Box keicar has seen 27 000 unit orders in the first month of sales, double Honda's original target. These kei cars will now account for more than 40% of Honda's Japanese sales. Abroad, Honda is planning to boost the portion of vehicles sold in the same region as they are built to as high as 80%.