Honda is hoping to return to growth in Europe with a renewed model line-up and a £198.3 million investment in its UK plant in Swindon.

Honda is targeting 200,000 units a year in Europe and is hoping its new HR-V crossover, new Jazz, new CR-V and the next-generation Civic launched in early 2017 will all help it get there. The new Civic will be built in Swindon.

Honda has seen its market share decline from a high of 106,018 units a year to a low of 50,577 units in 2011. The brand has been slowly recovering its UK registration volumes over the last three years.

Honda posted a slight drop in registrations last year by 3.8% to 53,544 units and also saw a 5.3% drop in registrations over the first six months of this year.

The new HR-V is expected to add 15,000 units a year to Honda’s UK volumes alone. The Japanese brand stopped importing the low volume CR-Z, Insight and Accord models.

Philip Ross, Honda Motor Europe senior vice president, said he is confident the range of models will bring in new conquest customers.

Honda also starts production of its NSX hybrid supercar to act as a halo model for the brand.

Ross said: “2015 has been an important year for Honda, but it’s very much the start of things to come.”