Honda trims China output

Honda is cutting gasoline-car capacity in China, with one joint-venture plant set to stop production in June and another under review for 2027. (reuters.com) Two people familiar with the plan told Reuters the June shutdown would hit a plant run with Guangzhou Automobile Group, or GAC. A second plant with Dongfeng Motor Group could be suspended next year. (reuters.com) Honda has six car plants in China across those two partnerships. Reuters said the two factories in question are internal-combustion plants with capacity of 240,000 vehicles a year each. (reuters.com) If both closures go ahead, Honda’s annual production capacity in China would fall to 720,000 vehicles from 1.2 million. Reuters said Honda had already cut that figure from 1.49 million in recent years. (reuters.com) The retreat follows a sharp sales slide. Honda’s China unit said 2025 vehicle sales fell to 645,345, and Reuters reported that was down 24% from 2024. (honda.com.cn, reuters.com) Honda is still investing in electric models in China, but the new plants in Guangzhou and Wuhan are expected to make electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids led by the Chinese joint-venture partners from 2028 or later, according to one source cited by Reuters. (reuters.com) Foreign carmakers are under pressure across the market, not just at Honda. Volkswagen’s China chief told Reuters this week that competition is getting tougher and that China’s overall auto market could shrink for the first time in almost a decade. (reuters.com) Honda’s wider reset is already showing up in its financials. Reuters reported in March that the company wrote down the value of its China business as part of an electric-vehicle overhaul that could bring up to $15.7 billion in restructuring costs. (reuters.com) The immediate result is simpler than the strategy memo: Honda is making fewer petrol cars in the world’s biggest auto market while it waits for a new China lineup to arrive. (reuters.com)