Honda to invest $3bn in new US plant
Honda Motor Co. said Monday that it will spend about 3 billion dollars to build a new auto plant in Ohio to meet growing demand for hybrid vehicles in the United States, JIJI PRESS reports.
The Japanese automaker's sixth vehicle assembly plant in the United States is expected to begin production in 2029 with an annual capacity of 240,000 units. It is likely to produce mainly hybrid SUVs.
The new plant will be built near Honda's existing East Liberty plant and is expected to create more than 2,000 new jobs. It will boost the automaker's annual production capacity in North America to 1.91 million units from 1.67 million units.
Bob Nelson, executive vice president at American Honda Motor Co., a U.S. unit of the automaker, said at a press conference in Marysville, Ohio, that the new plant "will be one of Honda's most advanced in the world."
The plant "will be built for flexibility," Nelson said. It "will have the capability to produce hybrids, gasoline-powered, and battery electric vehicles, giving Honda the ability to adjust our production as customer demand and market conditions change," he said.
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that Toyota Motor Corporation and autonomous driving technology company Waymo would begin testing a fleet of autonomous Toyota bZ4X vehicles in Japan in 2027 as part of their expanded partnership.