Turnover has grown by more than £1 billion at the European arm of automotive giant Honda, with production increasing dramatically as the manufacturer begins exporting UK-made cars to North America.

Honda Motor Europe — a wholly owned subsidiary of Honda (Japan) — has its headquarters in Bracknell and its manufacturing facility in Swindon.

The turnover of Honda Motor Europe (www.honda.co.uk) grew to £5.21 billion in the 12 months to 31 March 2017 (up from £4.05 billion in 2015/16), while pre-tax profits reached £73.3 million (up from £31.7 million).

Car sales in Europe increased by 7% to 184,000, boosted by sales of the HR-V model and the “gradual recovery in economic conditions”, while motorbike sales grew by 6.4% to 217,000.

The Swindon manufacturing operation — Honda of the UK Manufacturing Ltd — reported a turnover of £2.16 billion (up from £1.84 billion, but its pre-tax profits fell to £9 million (from £15.4 million).

This was put down to “adverse foreign-exchange effects” and a general increase in the cost of sales for the new Civic.

Unit production rose by 30.1% to 149,000, following the first exports of the Civic hatchback model to North America. The Swindon facility became the global hub for production of the five-door Civic model, with exports to Europe, North America and Japan. The Civic Type-R model is also made solely in Swindon.

A spokesman for Honda said: “Looking to the future, Honda remains committed to its operations here in the UK.

“However, we do urge the UK Government to continue dialogue with the EU to deliver a free and frictionless trading environment, post-Brexit. This is central to our continued success in the European region as a whole.”