Honda Shifts to Cheaper Global Platform for Civic in Europe

Honda Motor Co. predicts a "significant" drop in production costs in 2017 when it switches from a special-spec chassis to a global platform for the Civic five-door hatch it makes in the U.K, Automotive News reports.

Honda builds European Civics at its underutilized factory in Swindon, England. The company is spending 200 million ($301 million) to prepare the British facility for the new platform.

Replacing the current Civic platform with an exportable architecture will help support output at Swindon. Honda says the revamped plant will make about 120,000 Civics per year, shipping half to Europe and the rest to Australia, Japan and the U.S.

The Swindon factory currently exports 90% of its Civics to European markets. The plant will end production of the Jazz minicar this summer. The plant also will phase out CR-V small crossover production at the end of next year. Europe will then be supplied with Jazz and CR-Vs from Japan and Canada, respectively.