gas-sipping
ホンダ自動車の海外への輸出が輸入を上回ったという記事です。
この記事に出てくる”gas-sipping”をWeblioで調べると「燃費の良い」という意味がありました。”sipping”は「すすり込み」という意味です。自動車が燃料を効率よくすすり込むという感じなのでしょうか。
海外市場の占める売上割合は大きいですのでその重要性を改めて認識できました。（Ume）
Honda first Japan automaker to be net exporter from U.S.
Honda Motor Co last year exported more cars out of the United States than it imported into the country, claiming a first among major Japanese automakers.
More than 30 years after it began building cars in the U.S., the company’s North American arm said it shipped 108,705 Honda and Acura brand vehicles out of the U.S. in 2013. The company imported 88,537 vehicles into the U.S. from Japan.
Rick Schostek, Honda North America’s executive vice president, told reporters on a conference call the milestone was “one that’s been 30 years in the making”. The exported vehicles carried a value of $2.658 billion.
The net exporter status is also the product of significant recent investment - Honda has put more than $2.7 billion into expanding its North American auto plants in the past three years. That’s part of a strategy designed to boost production in the U.S. and make cars close to the markets where they are sold, said Schostek.
Honda shipped from U.S. plants last year to 50 countries, but most of the exports went to Mexico. Honda did not include shipments to Canada in its U.S. export figures.
Having begun importing the gas-sipping subcompact Civic into the U.S. in 1973, Honda began making cars in the country in 1982. Its Marysville, Ohio, plant, was the first to be owned by a Japanese auto company in the U.S., and the Accord sedan was the first model to roll off its assembly line.
