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Honda Motor Co., Japan's second-largest carmaker, increased global production in September to meet demand for small cars in the U.S. and emerging markets, Bloomberg news service reported Monday.


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Right, 2009 Honda Civic LX-S Sedan.
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Output rose 9.6 percent to 360,453 vehicles last month, the company said in a statement. Honda also benefited from one to two extra production days in the U.S. this year, it said.


The company is shuffling U.S. production to keep factories busy and boost car output, while building fewer minivans and sport-utility vehicles as light-truck sales fall. Expansion in China is reducing Honda's reliance on the U.S., where U.S. industrywide sales this year have slid 13 percent through September, triggered by high gasoline prices and a credit crunch.


"Honda has a very focused strategy'' emphasizing small cars over larger vehicles, Hirofumi Yokoi, a Tokyo-based analyst at auto-consulting company CSM Worldwide, told Bloomberg. "That leaves them in pretty good shape right now.''


Honda's sales are down 1.1 percent this year, compared with an 18 percent drop for General Motors Corp., a 17 percent decline for Ford Motor Co. and a 25 percent plunge for Chrysler LLC. Sales for Toyota Motor Corp., Japan's largest automaker, have fallen 10 percent.
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Tags: Chrysler, Ford, Fuel Economy, General Motors, Honda, Toyota, Chrysler, Civic, CR-V, Element, Fuel Efficient, General Motors, GM, Honda, Odyssey, SUV, Toyota

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As Other Automakers Slash Production, Honda Raises Output for Fuel-Efficient Cars was originally published by Green Car Advisor. Read the full story by clicking here.