Honda Odyssey, Pilot production being cut, Civic increasing

Honda has announced plans to gradually reduce its inventory of Odyssey vans and Pilot crossovers in a market hungry for fuel efficient small cars, reports Automotive News.

The forecasted 10,000 in combined production cuts for 2008 will take place at Honda's plant in Lincoln, Alabama, from August through October. The plant will be closed beginning August 1 until August 29 and upon reopening, will lose its second shift every Friday throughout the three month production rollback.

Like other automakers have done recently, Honda is scaling back production so it won't flood dealers with its larger models, sales of which have been slowing.

"Honda is not immune to the shift in the market," Honda spokesman David Iida stated to Automotive News. "We don't want inventories to get too high."

During the first half of the year, Honda built 158,316 Odysseys and Pilots, down 2.4 percent compared to the same time last year. According to figures compiled by Automotive News, the automaker had a 78 day supply of Odysseys and a 99 day supply of Pilots as of July 1.

Iida indicated no layoffs will be undertaken as a result of action. Time off will reportedly be used for employee training, as well as for paid or unpaid vacations.

Honda will also move all light-truck production to Alabama from Ontario, Canada beginning early next year. Civic production will also increase at the automaker's East Liberty, Ohio, plant and Allison, Ontario facilities by an undisclosed amount.

Source: Automotive News (Subscription required)