Honda considers Thai hybrid production

Honda is said to be kicking around the idea of building hybrid cars in Thailand (already a site for Civic production) if favorable tax breaks are granted. This would mark the first manufacture of hybrids outside of Japan for Honda, and follows news from last week that Toyota is ready to start hybrid production in China. This, of course, would go a long ways towards further establishing Thailand as a serious player in the Asian auto assembly business, and Honda would likely benefit from reduced labor costs and make the vehicle more attractive to the Chinese market. Longer-term, one could logically expect Honda to follow its "globalocalization" strategy with hybrids, just as it has done with the rest of its lineup.