Honda has announced that its European cars sales are 18.2% higher than the same month last year increasing the company’s registrations for the first six months of 2004 by 17.9% over 2003.

Honda expects its upward trend to accelerate further when its newly unveiled compact MPV, the FR-V, goes on sale in Europe in November.

Honda’s largest market, the UK, saw a 16.7% rise in June bringing the rise for the first six months to 13.9% - a total of 49,978 vehicles.

Sales figures for the six months have been good across most of Europe says Honda, including the German market which increased by 2.8%.

Honda has also announced the direction and some initiatives for its new ‘medium term’ plan that will begin with the start of the next fiscal year.

Honda says its main focus will be to:

strengthen the ability to create new and unique technologies and products.

create dynamic manufacturing operations where high quality is achieved in every manufacturing process.

strengthen sales and service to achieve stable sales and lifetime customer satisfaction.