It's been around a decade since Honda offered a Civic hatchback in the US. At the time, Americans preferred sedans and coupes (not to mention SUVs), while hatchbacks were too often equated as wagon-like. But things are a bit different today. Hatchbacks may still not be overwhelmingly popular in the US, but there's now the Ford Focus, Mazda3, and VW Golf hatchbacks that sell in respectable numbers.

According to the Japanese Nikkei and The Truth About Cars, Honda will send the next generation Civic hatchback to the US in 2016, although in limited numbers. It will, as it is now, be produced in the UK. The US is expected to receive around 30,000 to 40,000 Civic hatchbacks per year. Now, does this mean the US will also see the Civic Type R hot hatch? Possibly the next generation but definitely not the one that just launched earlier this month at Geneva. So why is Honda doing this? For starters, Honda wants to compete against those aforementioned US market hatchbacks, but that UK plant is being underutilized and churning out more cars for a new market should fix that.