Honda Motor Co. plans to build a new factory in China that will produce passenger cars from 2019, boosting its output capacity in the country by about a fifth, two people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
Honda and partner Dongfeng Motor Group Co. are experiencing explosive growth in China with sales for their joint venture soaring 48 percent for the year to date thanks to the popularity of the XR-V sport-utility vehicle as well as the recently launched Civic sedan.
At the same time, the venture, Dongfeng Honda, is coming close to its capacity limits at its two factories, targeting sales of 450,000 vehicles for 2016 — not far off current annual capacity of 480,000.