TOKYO/OTTAWA (Reuters) -Honda said it has no plans to move car production from Canada and Mexico to the U.S., responding to a report that it might move operations in an effort to avoid potentially devastating tariffs.
“No changes are being considered at this time,” Honda Canada said in an emailed statement.
“Honda has not made any production decisions that affect operations in Mexico, nor are any currently being considered,” Honda Mexico said in an emailed statement.
The Nikkei newspaper earlier said Honda was considering switching some car production from Mexico and Canada to the United States, aiming for 90% of cars sold in the country to be made there, in response to new U.S. auto tariffs.
Japan’s second-biggest automaker by sales plans to increase U.S. vehicle production by as much as 30% over two to three years in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to put a 25% levy on imported vehicles, Nikkei said.
“We constantly study options for future contingency planning and utilize short-term production shift strategies when required,” Honda Canada said. “We are confident in our ability to continue navigating current market conditions effectively.”
Honda Canada, the second-largest domestic auto manufacturer by volume in 2024, operates a plant in Alliston, Ontario.
Mexican Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Tuesday in an X post that Honda executives in the country have told the government they have no plans to modify their production there. Honda has plants in the states of Guanajuato and Jalisco.
In the weeks before the new U.S. levy went into effect, Reuters reported that Honda planned to make its next-generation Civic hybrid in the U.S. state of Indiana, instead of Mexico, to avoid potential tariffs.
The U.S. was Honda’s biggest market last year, accounting for nearly 40% of global sales. The automaker sold 1.4 million vehicles, including Acura models, in the U.S. last year. It imported about 40% of those cars from Canada and Mexico.
Honda posted a 5% rise in U.S. sales to almost 352,000 vehicles in the first three months of this year.
The company will move production of the CR-V SUV from Canada and the HR-V SUV from Mexico to the U.S., according to Nikkei.
To increase output, Honda is considering hiring more U.S. workers, the newspaper said. Such a step would make it possible for Honda to switch to a three-shift system from two shifts and extend production to weekends, Nikkei added.
(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya, Satoshi Sugiyama and Daniel Leussink in Tokyo, David Ljunggren in Ottawa, Emily Green in Mexico City; Editing by Kirsten Donovan, Sharon Singleton and Cynthia Osterman)
