You must have heard about Honda’s plans to go fully electric by 2040. Of course, there will be some casualties in this transition. And the first one is already happening as Honda is closing its oldest manufacturing plant in Sayama, Saitama Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo.
With this move, Honda is trying to cut costs to focus on Electric Vehicles (EVs). The company is also ending its Formula 1 racing programme and adopting a new vehicle development system to achieve complete electrification of its vehicles by 2040.
The Sayama Automobile Plant
Sayama is one of the three plants of Honda’s Saitama Factory. The other two are Yorii Automobile Plant and Ogawa Automobile Plant. The Sayama Automobile Plant began its operations in 1964 and produced Honda’s front-runner models that defined the company, including the Honda Civic, Accord, Odyssey, Legend, and Clarity.
For half a century, the Sayama Plant remained a big part of Honda’s domestic production. The plant could produce around 250,000 cars each year. With a heavy heart, Honda has decided it’s the end of the road for its Mother Factory. An official “line-off” ceremony was held on December 27 to mark the occasion.
No new cars will roll off the Sayama plant’s production line starting this year. Its operations will be transferred to the Yorii plant over the span of two to three years. The plant will continue to make vehicle parts until its complete shutdown.
As a result, Honda’s around one million annual domestic production capacity will fall down to 80,000 vehicles. That’s 40% less than Honda’s peak production of 1.3 million cars in the early 2000s.
“Like you, I will miss it all,” Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe said during the Sayama plant’s line-off ceremony. “We will continue making automobiles that meet the needs of consumers at home and abroad.”
The closing of its Mother Factory will impact Honda’s financials, but like all good things, the Sayama Plant must come to an end. Hope this sacrifice pays off for Honda.
None of the Honda Cars in Pakistan is fully electric. If the company pulls this electric transformation thing off in the next two decades, hopefully, we’ll see some Honda EVs in Pakistan.
