Honda seeking approval to double China capacity

Honda is seeking Chinese government approval to double production capacity to 240,000 vehicles a year. The projected unit total would bring Chinese capacity for Japan's second-biggest automaker to 650,000 units per year. Honda also has another car-making venture with Guangzhou Automobile producing a run rate of 50,000 cars.

Honda said production capacity at the Dongfeng Honda factory, which builds the CR-V and Civic models, would be raised in the next two years, as long as there was market demand. The company sold 422,311 cars in China last year - up 31 percent from 2006.

Based on the projected Chinese expansion plus other factory expansions Honda's global production capacity could reach 4.8 million cars by 2010. Clearly the company is "bullish" on the future, and says that it expects to sell more than 4.5 million cars globally in 2010, a figure that was characterized as "conservative" according to officials.