Honda Motor Co. plans to freeze production of the 2018 Honda Accord at its Marysville, Ohio, plant for 11 days over the next four months in response to sluggish U.S. sales and swollen inventories.
Workers at the plant who assemble the Accord will work nonproduction jobs or take those 11 days off -- two days off each month, from April through June, along with a five-day extension of the plant's annual summer shutdown in July, a Honda spokesman told Automotive News.
"We're adjusting production at our automotive facilities regularly, up and down," the spokesman said. "This is just really business as usual and we're adjusting production down to match the market condition at this moment."
Accord inventory levels stood at a 104-day supply on March 1 -- high by any standards, let alone Honda's typical sparse count.
A dealer source told Automotive News this month that Honda likely would cut Accord production. According to dealers, slow sales have been prompted in part by a lack of attractive lease offers, Automotive News reported Saturday.
Last year, the Japanese automaker poured $267 million into the Marysville plant and added 300 jobs to boost production of the redesigned sedan. In addition to the Accord, the plant produces the Acura ILX luxury compact sedan and Acura TLX luxury midsize sedan.
The workers have the option of taking unpaid time off or vacation days, or working nonproduction jobs such as maintenance and process changes.
"I want to stress this," the spokesman said. "If they want to come in and work, there will work for them available on the nonproduction days."
Vince Bond contributed to this report.
