Honda will temporarily halt production at most of its U.S. and Canadian auto plants next week. The automaker expects the production pause to last about a week.
In a press release, Honda blamed “the impact from COVID-19, congestion at various ports, the microchip shortage, and severe weather over the past several weeks” for the delay. The company did not specify which vehicles will see production delays. Honda says that “in some way, all of our auto plants in the U.S. and Canada will be impacted.”
The company typically builds more than 30,000 vehicles per week in North America. Honda’s Mexican plants continue to operate.
Honda is just one of nearly a dozen companies to halt or reduce production in the U.S. since the chip shortage began. We have not yet seen impacts on car prices – indeed, many automakers began purposefully carrying tighter inventories before the chip shortage began. We will update this story if supply shortages begin to push car prices higher.
