Honda had a blowout U.S. sales month in January with its CR-V at record sales of 18,960, up 16% from last year’s record-setting total of 16,339. The Civic, now that dealers have an adequate supply, also continued to grow with sales of 21,883. Even the aging Accord posted January sales of 13,659, up 1.5% from the same period last year. A new Accord is due later this year.
Honda Motor Company said today that it produced almost 317,000 vehicles in January 2012, with North America and the U.S. posting all-time monthly records of 150,000 and 108,000 respectively.
However, production in regions outside of Japan experienced a year-on-year decrease for the fourth consecutive month (since October 2011) despite the North American records. In Japan, there was a year-on-year increase for the second consecutive month. Asia was the worrisome area, with production down almost 50%, with China off 31%.
A debate is going on about whether the Communist Chinese government is slowing down the economy, as many western economists think, or whether as some automakers maintain that the New Year in China drastically altered sales and production numbers.
Ford China reported January sales of 30,976 vehicles – a (-42%) freefall compared with 53,340 vehicles in the same period last year, and just under 50,000 vehicles in December of 2011. Nissan production in China decreased 30% year-on-year to 75,223 units, as sales decreased 16.2% to 94,745 units General Motors also posted a sales drop of 8% in January to 246,654 vehicles – GM’s second-best January ever in China where it is well established.
| Honda Production | January 2012 | |
| Units | vs ’11 | |
| North America | 149,746 | +33.8% |
| (USA) | 108,222 | +31.5% |
| Europe | 13,479 | +21.1% |
| Asia | 47,912 | -50.3% |
| (China) | 43,319 | -31.0% |
| Others | 7,316 | -8.9% |
| Outside Japan Total | 218,453 | -3.9% |
