Author:
ROBIN ROBERTS
Honda want to extend its reach into Britain’s business car sector.
Honda UK MD, Dave Hodgetts, says it plans to introduce a new Civic 1.6 with 94gkms CO2 emissions early next year. This would place the Honda Civic in the 13% company car tax band for the 2013/14 tax year – and make it one of the lowest emission cars in the hatchback class.
“We have a small presence with the Civic already but we know we can build on that with the new 1.6,” he said. “We will reveal more on the car towards the end of this year and it will be available in January.”
Mr Hodgetts said, “We can make Honda a very good business proposition for our company car customers, but it’s important we get into the sub-100gkm sector.”
In addition to the new 1.6 diesel, Honda says it is extending its range with the introduction of a new Civic Wagon model, which has been shown as a shadowy concept (below).
Mr Hodgetts has been in charge of manufacturing at Honda Swindon before taking over the reins in the headquarters of Honda UK outside London, and believes the British Government must do more to help the industry and sales operations.
“We can make engines to specific requirement even if they are very challenging,” he said, adding, “But we must have consistency and we need to know what is happening a few years ahead to make plans and produce the models needed.”
He would like to see a rolling five-year programme of developments being flagged up so that manufacturers were not subjected to sudden changes in demands which wasted money and meant costly changes during late stages of developments.
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Honda has recently launched its new CR-V SUV model.
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