Honda Shifts Gears, Switching Civic Production From Mexico To US

After shifting Civic production to Mexico, Honda is doing an about-face, reportedly bringing the popular model line back to Indiana. The move, unsurprisingly, comes after President Trump threatened a 25 percent tariff on goods manufactured south of the border. Other automakers have been signaling similar moves.

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More specifically, Reuters says in an explosive report the Civic Hybrid is coming back to America for production after Honda shipped it to a plant in Mexico as part of a cost savings strategy. However, assembly work south of the border wasn’t set to begin until November 2027.

The Civic is a staple for the Honda brand and the automaker anticipates about 210,000 hybrid versions of the car will be made each year. Knowing how Honda works, those won’t just be sitting on dealer lots but instead will be snatched up by eager shoppers.  

Now it looks like production will begin in Indiana as of May 2028, if the information in the report is accurate. Reuters said three unnamed sources corroborate the details.

Like many other automakers, Honda has shifted quite a bit of production to Mexico as a way to trim costs. Reuters claims about 80 percent of Hondas assembled there are sold in the US market. That means the company should be uprooting other product lines, moving production to this country or others not getting hit by tariffs.

While some worry the tariffs will drastically increase the prices of new cars, which have already skyrocketed since 2020, others believe the tariffs will help stimulate the US economy, providing a greater benefit as more manufacturing jobs are brought back to this side of the border.

Nobody knows for sure how everything will play out, but automakers are having to stay light on their feet, shifting strategies as the geopolitical climate around the world changes.

Image via Honda