Honda 's £80m investment

Date

March 18, 2008

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Honda 's £80m investment follows two-millionth UK car

Honda has just celebrated production of the two millionth car from its Swindon car production facility.

The silver CR-V rolled off the production line nearly 16 years after car manufacturing began in October 1992. And to coincide with the recordbreaking CR-V, the company announced substantial new investment, showing further commitment to its UK manufacturing operations. Building on its 22 year history, Honda of the UK Manufacturing Ltd (HUM) is investing a further £80 million to upgrade and improve manufacturing processes.

This includes: £20 million into Plastic Operations which started mass production in January 2008 and is capable of moulding and painting 1300 sets of bumpers for Civic and CR-V each day; £16 million into a new casting facility employing the Honda patented process of ASCT (advanced semi-solid casting technology). This unique new process will enable HUM to independently cast diesel blocks, a process which, until now, has only been carried out at Honda in Japan; A further £50 million being invested in welding and paint production technology, increasing efficiency and production flexibility.

Honda's Swindon plant has shown a 25% increase in production volume over the last 18 months, with the company's UK sales operation breaking through the 100,000 sales barrier for the first time in 2007. Currently just under 30% of Swindon production goes to the UK market. In 2007, HUM produced 237,783 cars and in 2008 is planning to make 236,000. Dundee-born Ken Keir, Senior Vice President of Honda Motor Europe, said: "The fact there are over two million happy customers driving Swindon built Honda cars is testament to our Associates' commitment and is a great accomplishment."