Honda Australia director Stephen Collins resigns

Honda Australia’s director and chief working officer, Stephen Collins, will go away his function on November 4, 2022.

Mr Collins has been director of Honda Australia since September 2011, and has been COO of the automotive enterprise since April 2022.

He’ll be succeeded by Carolyn McMahon, who’s a present Honda Australia board member and director.

“Firstly, we thank and admire Mr. Collins’s dedication to Honda’s enterprise operations in Australia,” mentioned Honda Australia managing director and CEO Yoshitaka Okamoto.

“Stephen has given advance discover of the timing of his departure however is dedicated to working with the group to finalise numerous necessary tasks and initiatives.”

“His management, strategic considering and robust relationships throughout the community, trade and authorities, have been important in establishing a powerful base for the way forward for Honda,” Mr Okamoto mentioned.

Honda Australia has undergone an enormous overhaul since Mr Collins took the reins, most notably the change from franchise supplier gross sales to an company mannequin in July 2021.

The shift, described as “in all probability the largest change” within the model’s historical past Down Below, was designed to permit Honda to promote fewer vehicles at the next margin domestically in the hunt for larger income.

Honda is concentrating on 20,000 gross sales per yr beneath the brand new mannequin; primarily based on gross sales up to now this yr it’s on monitor to ship round 15,000 in 2022, though provide shortages make it laborious to learn whether or not these figures are provide or demand constrained.

As a part of the change, Honda has pared again its vary of vehicles in Australia, and can focus extra carefully on high-spec fashions.

Gone are the Civic sedan, Jazz hatchback, Metropolis sedan, NSX supercar, and Odyssey individuals mover, whereas the Civic hatch and HR-V SUV ranges have been reduce.

The HR-V and CR-V crossovers might be joined by one other SUV mannequin sooner or later earlier than the tip of 2023, nevertheless, probably dubbed ZR-V.

The Civic e:HEV hybrid and Civic Kind R are each due Down Below shortly, whereas the brand new CR-V was “greater than 12 months away” when it was revealed in July 2022.