Honda eyes to bring fleet only low cost Civic to the UK

01 July 2010

Honda Motors UK is keen to introduce a new trim level of Honda Civic locally, exclusively aimed at the fleet market. Sales of Civic in the corporate

Honda Motors UK is keen to introduce a new trim level of Honda Civic locally, exclusively aimed at the fleet market. Sales of Civic in the corporate market reduced by 37% in the first five months of the year, which prompted the Japanese marque to consider offering a low-tax variant of its funky hatchback.

The model, which is believed to compete against the BMW 116d and VW Golf Bluemotion, will not benefit from a cut in CO2 emission; however the company decided to slash the car's recommended price. The idea of trimming down the car's list price is to lure customers who are looking to reduce their Benefit-in-Kind tax bill.

"We asked 'how do we make the Civic more compelling to the corporate customer?' The answer was to make it as tax efficient as possible. As a fleet person it's not possible to alter the CO2 output, so we have to reduce the P11D value", said Graham Avent, sales director of Honda Motors UK.

The car, dubbed as Civic Ci, is based on the Si model but features a Bluetooth. Honda hopes that the latest fleet trim level will account for eight percent of Civic sales.

The car will be exclusively offered to fleet customers; no models will be displayed in showrooms and no prices will be released outside of direct corporate marketing.

"The Civic Ci is not on Honda.co.uk and the cars won't be in showrooms, but information will be available in dealers and for fleet customers through company intranets and leasing company systems", added Avent.

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