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Smyrna, but by and large the products produced in those factories were developed in places like Tochigi, Toyota City and Yokosuka. With time, there has been more design and development transferred to places like Raymond, Ohio, and Ann Arbor and Farmington Hills, Michigan. But Evert admits that in the case of Honda vehicles, the development responsibilities have pretty much been focused on work for vehicles that are North American-centric, vehicles like the Pilot crossover and the Odyssey minivan. As these are vehicles that are predominantly for the North American market, it makes sense to have development work done there. The Civic is a global vehicle. A vehicle that has been pur- chased more than 35-million times since the frst car went on sale in 1972. Of that number, U.S. sales have accounted for about a third. And when you drill down into the people who are buying Civics in the U.S., it turns out that it is exceedingly popular with an age segment that is highly desired by all OEMs: the under-35 group. The Civic was the most-popu- lar car for that cohort from 2007 to 2013. In 2014 the Honda Accord bested it. The point here is that the Civic is a gateway into the Honda brand. And potentially into Acura, as well. Which elevates its importance. So when they set about to develop the 10th-generation plat- form for the two body styles that are fundamental for the car in the U.S. market—the sedan and the coupe—a platform that has global use (those two styles will be complemented by a third, a fve-door, which was devel- oped in Japan), the decision was made to base the development program in the U.S. Said plainly: the global devel- opment for the global car is being done by a team that is not located anywhere near global HQ. The global leader for the Civic is Mitsuru Kariya. Evert reports to him. Kariya relocated to Ohio for the program. For those familiar with the Honda engineering position nomenclature, the person in charge is designated the LPL, or "large project leader." For the frst-generation Acura RDX crossover, Evert was the LPL. He points out that the RDX was primarily focused on the U.S. market, and the frst-gen vehicle was built from 2006 to 2012 in the Marysville plant in Ohio. So that, in large part, explains that. LPLs have people working for them on various subsystems, like body and chassis. These people are designated "ALPLs"— with the "A" signifying "assistant." So although the North American team—the car's global launch occurred on October 20, 2015, at Honda of Canada Mfg. in Alliston, Ontario, underscoring that this is a North American, not just U.S., development, as Manufacturing is cer- tainly part of the input—was responsible for the development of the platform, Evert says that in this case he's really the ALPL, as Kariya is the person who has primary responsibility for Civic the world over. But given the fact that Honda has had a non-trivial presence in the U.S. for more than a quarter century, one might well wonder why it has taken so long for design and engineering responsibility of this magnitude to be given to the U.S. And Evert answers, "There needs to be a maturing of an organization. And now it is time for R&D; [as in the U.S. team in Ohio and California] to take that step. The level of difculty when you take something from a North American product to a global product is unbelievable. You have so many variations coming of of it. It is phenomenal. You have to understand the diferent features and requirements from around the world—and the factories around the world. So it was felt that now it's time for U.S. R&D; to take the next step in developing a global vehicle." Presumably, this means that going forward, there will be more responsibility for that R&D; team. Historically, when Civics were developed, they were given thematic nicknames, Evert says. So the generation-two car was the "Super Civic," followed by the "Wonder Civic," "Grand Civic," "Sports Civic" (for which he designed the little bracket), and "Miracle Civic." The sixth-generation Civic was the last to have a nickname. The ninth-generation Civic, model year 2012, was roundly crit- icized, so much so that the company did a non-trivial refresh for We wanted to make an 'Epic Civic.' The Civic is available with an all-new 1.5-liter, direct-injected engine that produces 174 hp and 162 lb-ft. One objective of the development of the 2016 Civic was to provide a sporty car, like some of its predecessors, and this engine plays a signifcant role in achieving it. 26 COVER STORY