Honda sells six model lines in the UK: the Accord, Civic, CR-Z, CR-V, Insight and Jazz. Three of those, the Civic, CR-V and Jazz, are made at Honda UK Manufacturing's facilities in Swindon, while the Accord, CR-Z and Insight are built in Japan. The hybrids are niche models that don't fit in the mass-market pipeline, but that's not the case with the Accord. According to a story in Autocar, pressures on Accord sales due to its assembly location and European market tastes have lead Honda to declare that the next generation might not make it to the UK.
The strong Japanese yen has pressured the profits of every export model built there. But exerting even more pressure than that on the Accord are the European market's moves to small SUVs and to cars with a lower CO2 tax. Autocar says the Accord is down to about 2,500 sales per year. By comparison, the D-segmentVauxhall Insignia sold 2,949 units in May alone. Admittedly there will be brisk business and fleet sales bolstering that number, but the essentially five-year-old Nissan Qashqai moved 4,775 units in June. If Honda can't figure out a solution to bolster the Accord's UK fortunes, it might take a break from the 'sceptered isle.
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