The all-new Honda Insight has recently gone on sale, and has already met huge demand and positive editorial coverage. But despite the demand for the Insight, which officially is the most affordable hybrid in the U.S., Honda struggles to boost production to meet the lofty sales projections.
In Japan, sales of the Insight have already tripped what Honda had originally projected, causing concern among San Francisco Honda dealers that a similar scenario will also occur here in the U.S. At the moment, Honda is only capable of manufacturing a reported 600 new Insight models in a single day at the company’s Suzuka plant in Japan. Unfortunately with demand skyrocketing at home and in North American, Gardena Honda dealers believe that plant is at near capacity.
The obvious solution to the production strain will be to move production facilities to the U.S. Considering most Insights are destined for the U.S., Honda Longview Texas says it makes perfect sense that facilities are established closer to their ultimate destination. Unfortunately, new facilities will not come anytime soon. One problem is that more affordable components are sourced from Japan, while the automaker also has concerns with developing human resources for such facilities.
In the near-term, Honda is ramping up production further at its current facilities, boosting production from 200,000 units per years to 250,000 units. This may help somewhat according to Honda Philadelphia, but with intense demand for the affordable hybrid it may not be able to appease eager buyers. This is especially concerning considering that the third generation Prius is also arriving in Toyota showrooms. To make matters worse, Toyota is also reportedly working on a less expensive Yaris-based hybrid to compete directly with the Insight in terms of price. If Honda doesn’t act fast, competition and production limitations could cool demand for the hot new insight.Volvo Dives into Plug-in Hybrid Technology
Volvo has been struggling amid slumping global sales, but that hasn’t stopped the automaker from diving into research and development. One such as product of its R&D efforts is a new plug-in hybrid that will be due by 2012. Volvo has committed itself to producing a high mileage diesel-electric plug-in hybrid, but it has yet to confirm its plans to sell the vehicle in the U.S.Lexus ES Still Critical to Luxury Brand Lineup
As one Lexus’ most popular models, there will be plenty of drivers that will be happy to see a revamped Lexus ES 350 coming to showrooms later this month. While it may not be a full redesign, the updating certainly brings needed enhancements.Euro Civic Type-R Teases U.S. Consumers
In the U.S., Honda is mostly known for producing somewhat conservative, economical cars. However, the image of Honda outside of the States is far more performance oriented. This is attributed to a range of models that can be had overseas, but remain unavailable here.