Honda hatches growth plans

Honda will aim to quadruple annual sales of the hatch variant of its ninth-generation Civic when the Brit-built five-door arrives Down Under in June this year.

Set to launch locally in two well-specified variants, the key to the growth will be price.

While originally launched at near $40,000 in one leather-upholstered ‘limited-edition’ model, the latest five-door Civic will be aimed four square at the heart of the hatch marketplace with a starting price around $24,500.

Honda Australia sales chief Stephen Collins says the company will aim to sell around 5000 of the new hatches each year. Last year Honda Australia sold around 1800 hatches thanks to vigorous discounting, however, while marketed at its full $37,000-plus pricetag the outgoing Si Civic hatch averaged less than 700 sales per annum since its local launch in 2007.

According to Collins, sales of the new hatch will be incremental to the (approx) 1000 sales per month the latest Civic sedan is achieving. Honda has not had a mass-market hatch version of the Civic line-up locally since 2006.

In comparison, Mazda's best selling 3 sells upwards of 3000 units per month Down Under. This year Ford's Focus has sold around 1000 units per month, with Holden's Cruze now regularly topping the 2500 sales per month mark.

Collins says Honda Australia believes the new Civic Hatch will appeal to a different buyer group than the Civic sedan.

"We expect that buyers of the new hatch will be younger [than sedan buyers]. Also while the old hatch had a heavy female skew, this new car should have stronger appeal to male buyers," Collins told motoring.com.au.

The new Civic hatch will be offered as VTi and VTi-L grades and in both five-speed auto and six-speed manual variants. The sole engine option offered at launch will be a 1.8-litre petrol. Honda Australia will, however, launch a manual-only 1.6-litre turbo-diesel variant in Australia in mid-2013, Collins confirmed.

Collins says Honda's Swindon UK plant will remain the sole source for the five-door hatch for the foreseeable future. The flexible, fully integrated facility also builds Jazz and CR-V for the European, African and Russian markets.

Honda Australia will also source turbo-diesel variants of the next-generation CR-V from Swindon, Collins said.

Civic hatch program director Takehiko Masuda was on hand at Swindon during motoring.com.au's visit yesterday. The Honda Europe R&D vice-president was tight-lipped on details of future engine options for the new Civic but gave some hope to fans of Honda's Civic Type-R hottie.

According to Masuda-san, though Honda has dumped plans to build a three-door version of the new-generation car, the company is officially "still considering" a five-door replacement model for the Type-R.

Unofficially, Masuda and other Swindon sources admit a positive outcome of those considerations is "almost inevitable".

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