Honda: Japanese auto giant to start manufacturing cars in Nigeria

The company, which began production this month, plans to produce 1,000 of its Accord Sedans annually at the plant.

  New Honda CEO Takahiro Hachigo
(google)

Reports reveal that Honda Motor Company has said it has begun the building of cars in Nigeria by retooling part of its factory that previously made motorcycles.

According to the reports, the auto-giant's new chief executive, Takahiro Hachigo, said this at his first news conference since taking the helm in June yesterday in Tokyo.

Hachigo said the company, which began production this month, planned to produce 1,000 of its Accord Sedans annually at the plant.

The new chief executive, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said Honda would boost the production if the local market grows, adding that the plant would service other African countries.

  2016 Honda Accord Sedan
(10thcivicforum)

Meanwhile, Hachigo said it has no plans for now to provide financial aid to Takata Corp, the air bag supplier at the centre of a costly global air bag recall.

However, Hachigo said Honda had set aside enough to cover the cost of recalling over two million cars with potentially faulty air bag parts made by Takata, sources confirm.

“We have money budgeted for quality-related costs, as we did last year, and we think we can respond within this allocated amount,” Hachigo told journalists.

At 55, Hachigo, begins his stewardship of Japan’s third-biggest auto maker with a mission to restore the firm’s reputation for quality.

In the Takata air bag safety scare regulators have linked eight deaths to the component, all in cars made by Honda.

Hachigo’s predecessor Takanobu Ito and other executives took a pay cut last October, following a fifth recall of its Fit hybrid subcompact in a year. which had quality glitches unrelated to Takata-made inflators.