Honda Will Further Boost N. American Output

Honda Motor Co. plans to locally produce 95% of the vehicles it sells in North America within a few years, up 10 percentage points from 2011, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Tetsuo Iwamura, Honda's COO for North American unit, tells the newspaper the move is motivated by persistently strong yen, which makes Japan-built cars more expensive abroad and shrinks repatriated profits.

Iwamura says the company expects to soon export more vehicles from North America than it imports to that region from Japan.

Honda's annual North American exports could zoom from 55,000 vehicles last year to as many as 200,000 units after a new $800 million plant opens in Celaya, Mexico, in 2014. That facility will make the Honda Fit subcompact, which currently is imported from Japan.