Honda may spend $650 million to restore Thai plant: report

Thailand's worst floods in half a century late last year hit Honda the hardest among Japanese automakers, with its 240,000-cars-a-year plant in the Ayutthaya Province in central Thailand submerged under water.

Honda, Japan's No. 3 car producer, has already started replacing equipment with the aim of resuming output in April, the Nikkei said.

Refurbishing the flood-hit factory will almost be the equivalent of building a plant from scratch, the Nikkei quoted an unnamed Honda executive as saying.