Honda Civic and CR-V Discontinued In India With Greater Noida Plant Closure

The Honda Civic and the CR-V have been discontinued from the Japanese carmaker's lineup in India. This development comes about due to Honda 's decision to shut manufacturing operations at their plant in Greater Noida. Both the Civic and the CR-V were assembled solely at Honda's Greater Noida plant from CKD units that were imported from Japan. Honda will now be moving its production unit to their Tapukara plant in Alwar, Rajasthan. The Civic and the CR-V were actually Honda's flagship sedan and SUV in India.

Honda closed operation at their Greater Noida plant as they were not being able to meet the full capacity of the plant. Apart from the Civic and the CR-V being assembled here, Honda also manufactured the City sedan at the Greater Noida plant. The production of the City sedan will now be completely shifted to the Tapukara plant in Rajasthan, and while that could be done, the Civic and the CR-V cannot be assembled there. The Tapukara plant was conceived as an integrated plant with high efficiency to produce small and mid-size cars and it can only manufacture vehicles of a certain size.

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The Civic and the CR-V are thus being discontinued because they cannot be produced here in India anymore. Apart from production related issues, it also has to be considered that the Civic and the CR-V were Honda's lowest selling models, particularly in the aftermath of the pandemic. Honda sold only about 850 units of the Civic and a little over 100 units of the CR-V in the entire of the last six months. In comparison, Honda sells about 4,000 units of the City on an average each month while the Amaze remains their best seller with an average of over 5,000 units a month. Even the WR-V manages over 1,000 units a month while the Jazz manages an average of 700 units.

The Amaze, WR-V and the Jazz were already being produced at Honda's plant in Rajasthan and now the City will join them too. Honda's sales had been rapidly declining over the last few years in India. The decision to close the manufacturing plant in Greater Noida and rationalizing their product line-up are part of Honda’s efforts to improve operating efficiencies and safeguard its future in India. Honda is indeed committed to a long-term presence in the Indian market and their future product investment plans have not been curtailed by this development.

It is however a loss to lose these flagship Honda cars in India, particularly the Civic. It is only because both these models were CKDs and were priced significantly on the premium side, they could not make their presence felt in India. The Honda Civic was already operating in a lonely sedan space but that does not take away the fact that it was an extremely nice car. The lack of a well-packaged, well-priced SUV in Honda's lineup also particularly strikes hard right now.

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