Exclusive: Honda to close European design studios
Author: admin
Honda had decided to close down the design center in Offenbach, near Frankfurt, Germany. This shocking decision take place at the end of September and shown a hard hit in cuts for the car design community.
With recent economy crisis, Honda had made several moves to stop the company losses. In January, the UK factory was closed for four months and the Japanese company did not attend the Frankfurt motor show recently.
The future of Honda’s development activities on both the cad design and motorcycle design remains unclear. It was likely to be transfer to the small 200m2 design office in Milan opened back in 2001. This office did not report directly to Japan and has not played a crucial role in their design activities to date.
The Offenbach design center was opened in 1992 with a 3000m2 facility including 2 full-size modeling plates, milling operations, CAD, presentation hall and a viewing garden. The car studio was famous with concept like the 2008 OSM, the Small Hybrid Sports from 2007.
The powertrain development, testing, market research and advanced technology research will remain at Offenbach for now.