Honda's UK factory to churn out 75 Civic Type Rs every day to meet high demand
Approximately 13,000 hot hatches will be built in Swindon for worldwide market
Honda will build 75 units of its Civic Type R hot hatch every day for the next financial year to meet massive worldwide demand.
That figure represents more than 10 per cent of the 700 Civics being produced daily at the Japanese car manufacturer’s Swindon factory.
David Hodgetts, managing director at Honda UK, told the Press Association: “There’s plenty of anticipation for the new Civic Type R, which largely comes off the back of the fact that the car it replaced was very well received and was built in small numbers.
“But the American market has really driven up demand because it’s not been available over there before. We’re looking at producing about 13,000 units between now and March 31, and we’re exporting about 6,000 of those to the States.”
The United Kingdom has long been the best European market for hot hatches, and that looks set to continue with the new Type R. Of the 3,700 year-one cars set aside for Europe, about 1,500 will remain in the UK.
It will cost from £30,995 when it hits dealer forecourts later this summer, with the higher-spec GT trim commanding a £2,000 premium.
Hodgetts also revealed that the Type R’s predecessor was holding its value incredibly well because it was such a low-volume car.
“We’re finding that some of our fleet cars, which we’re selling with about 8,000 miles on the clock, are fetching about £27,000 – when you think they were about £30,000 when new, that’s very impressive,” he said.
The manufacturer has also revealed performance figures for its latest hot hatch – the 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine remains from the old model but now makes 316bhp, up 10bhp. It’ll sprint from 0-60mph in 5.5 seconds and on to a top speed of 169mph.
