Honda’s Civic ambitions – Fleet Voice

Honda has big ambitions for its new Civic hatch, which has just been launched and will arrive with the first UK buyers in February.

It was hoped to deliver the first cars in January, but the recent floods in Thailand have disrupted the supply chain and necessitated the four-week delay.

This highlights the fragility of modern automotive world and its global nature, but it also shows Honda’s commitment to getting the Civic on the ground in the UK despite the problems of the past year that have seen Japanese firms endure an earthquake and tsunami.

That commitment to the Civic from Honda is underlined by expected sales of 25,000 in the 2012 in the UK, followed by 30,000 in 2013.

However, Honda goes even further and expects to find 32,000 eager buyers for the new Civic in 2014 and many of them will be company car drivers.

The reason for the ever-upward sales graph is partly down to the new, ninth generation Civic broadening out its talents.

Yes, it’s still a great looker, but now it’s more refined, quieter, smoother riding and offers even more luggage space while finding a bit more room for those in the rear seats.

All of this is on top of Honda’s relentless pursuit of any extra advantage it can gain, epitomised by the tiny plastic winglets either side of the 2.2-litre turbodiesel model that reduce aerodynamic drag by 0.1Cd and consequently lower carbon dioxide emissions a smidgeon.

Honda drafted in some of its engineers who used to work on its Formula One project to help with the Civic’s development. That kind of engineering input is invaluable and incalculable when it comes to exploiting tiny margins.

However, the real reason Honda expects its sales to take a northerly trajectory over the next three years is the impending introduction of its new 1.6-litre turbodiesel for 2014.

This new engine will have carbon dioxide emissions of less than 100g/km, though Honda is remaining very tight-lipped and inscrutable about exact figures so far ahead of the engine’s introduction.

No matter, this engine will easily be the pick of the range for company car drivers and will bless Honda with a tax-efficient, low emissions engine the Civic range has been crying out for.

Even so, Honda has relatively modest ambitions for fleet sales of the Civic, estimating company cars will account for around 10,000 of those 32,000 total sales in 2014.

Phil Crossman, General Manager of Cars, Honda UK, explains: “Fleet is a key market for us, but we want to grow in this area in a structured fashion.

“It’s a bluechip business and carbon dioxide emissions is vitally important, so the new 1.6-litre turbodiesel is key to our ambitions in this sector.”