According to my sticker, it says final assembly Japan; Parts 80% US Content, 15% Japan and engine made in Japan (which is part of the 15% count).

I was surprised-is Honda in the U.S. sending back partially completed Civics made here and then reimporting the Hybrids?

Does anyone know if the non-Hybrid Civics are made in the U.S., Canada & Mexico?

Thanks,

Michael

 

Last I heard, most (all?) non-hybrid Civics for North America are built in Marysville, OH. Engines come mostly from Canada, and chassis from Kentucky.

 

Based on mmmrmnhrm's post, I think Honda must ship the parts or even completed shells from Ohio to Japan for finally assembly and drivetrain installation (which makes sense considering the complexities of the IMA).

 

I hope that is not how it works. Being shipped to Japan and back would offset much of the Hybrid's energy savings. Sort of like buying bamboo flooring because of its sustainability, but then learning that it is shipped 12,000 miles by boat to get here.

 

Unfortunately, I think mickster's right, which might explain why i get people complaining about how hybrids don't actually help anything over their lifecycle. I know Honda does ship an awful lot of soybeans back in car containers that would otherwise be empty, but for as much US content as these suckers have, they probably are shipping chassis, body panels, seats, and wheels/tires over to JPN for final assembly.

(edit: I seem to have run against a language filter, though I don't remember having put any naughty words in)

 

Well in any event, 80% of its parts are made in North America and final assembly is in Japan. Remember however, many of those parts are shipped to Japan as final export for assembly that stays in Japan.

If you look at the overall cost of shipping a ship that would otherwise be half full, filling it with Hybrids makes sense, even if they are coming back here. Plus the efficiencies of large scale shipping keep energy costs reasonable. (Air shipping is so much more expensive than ship because of the fuel and small capacities. Boats of course can be made huge and run on diesel with pretty good fuel consumption).

Maybe Honda Marine will develop a new Hybrid Ship engine that will generate energy from the natural swaying of the ship at sea-sort of like an automatic watch that generates energy (those Casio and Seiko Kinetics)?

 

Is it possible that the hybrid car parts could still be mostly made in Japan? Is the 80/15 breakdown for all Civics, hybrid and regular, or just for the hybrid model? It wasn't clear from my car sticker.

Aneil

 

Like Aneil, I took that to mean that if you averaged all of the Civics sold in the US, 80% of the parts would be from the U.S., not that 80% of the HCH2 specifically was from here.

I don't recall the specific wording, but I recall thinking it was a bit vague. Something like "this product line", rather than "this car".

I would find it hard to believe that they're shipping body parts to Japan for final assembly. Honda's U.S. plants are land-locked. The Canadian ones aren't really any easier (you'd have to ship along the St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic, then go around).

 

Each sticker is unique to that car (really to that trim) since some manufacturers used to build cars in multiple plants. In fact the parts content is pretty accurate for that car so it's not the whole line.

 

I did in fact confirm with Honda that 80% of the parts come from the U.S. and the final assembly is in Japan and that it strictly applies to the Civic Hybrid.

Michael