Honda weighs restarting EU car output as new rules take shape

Honda Motor’s European chief said the Japanese carmaker might rebuild a manufacturing presence in the region, depending on the final outcome of new rules in the European Union that would favor locally made cars.

The maker of Honda HR-V compact SUV has “certainly no intention to leave Europe,” Hans de Jaeger, president of for Honda’s European unit, said Tuesday in an interview at the EICMA motorcycle show in Milan.

The company could explore local production or manufacturing with another automaker, he said, stressing no such plan is currently on the table. De Jaeger said he hoped final legislation will recognize Japan as a trusted partner given Japanese companies’ investment in the region.

The European Commission’s proposed Industrial Accelerator Act is part of a push to protect manufacturing and reduce strategic dependencies as Chinese competition intensifies. It would reserve some public procurement and support for vehicles meeting “Made in EU” requirements, including local assembly and stringent European-content thresholds. The proposal still needs approval from the European Parliament and member states.

That poses a challenge for Honda, which ended car production in the U.K. and Turkey in 2021 and no longer manufactures automobiles in Europe.

Honda registrations across Europe totaled almost 59,000 in the first nine months of 2026. That’s too few to justify building a factory, De Jaeger said, though higher volumes could eventually change the calculation.