Honda will manufacture 90% of its sales in the U.S.

Honda is considering moving part of its car production from Mexico and Canada to the United States, with the goal of having 90% of the cars sold in the country manufactured locally in response to new U.S. tariffs on the automotive sector, the Nikkei newspaper reported.

"Japan's second-largest automaker by sales plans to increase vehicle production in the United States by as much as 30% in two to three years in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to impose a 25% tax on imported vehicles, Nikkei said.

In the weeks leading up to the new U.S. tax coming into effect, it had already been reported that Honda plans to manufacture its next-generation Civic hybrid in Indiana, rather than Mexico, to avoid potential tariffs.

The United States was Honda's largest market last year, accounting for nearly 40% of its global sales. The automaker sold 1.4 million vehicles, including Acura models, in the United States last year. It imported about two-fifths of those vehicles from Canada or Mexico.

Honda posted a 5% increase in U.S. sales to nearly 352,000 vehicles in the first three months of this year.

"The company will move production of the CR-V SUV from Canada to the United States and the HR-V SUV from Mexico to the world's largest economy," according to Nikkei.

Nikkei added that to increase production, Honda is considering hiring more U.S. workers, according to the newspaper. This move would allow Honda to switch from two shifts to three and extend production to weekends.