Honda Motor Company said it plans to resume production in the U.K. early next month, the latest automaker to restart operations shuttered amid the global coronavirus pandemic.
The Japanese carmaker, which makes the Civic compact sedan at a factory in Swindon, plans to reopen the first week of June, a U.K.-based spokesman for the company said.
Honda will first reboot its welding and painting operations on June 2, followed by all other production a day later, it said in a memo seen by Bloomberg News and dated May 13. The company plans to make 430 cars a day, ramping up to 450 a day by the week of June 15, the memo said.
The restart in Swindon follows a groundswell of vehicle-assembly lines in Europe slowly coming back to life, including those of Renault SA, Toyota Motor Corp., Volkswagen AG and Daimler AG. Honda halted production at its U.K. plant in mid-March. Next year it plans to permanently close the 3,500-worker facility—Bloomberg
