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Indiana Wins
In May, VehicleVoice and AutoPacific brought you the news that Honda announced a new vehicle assembly plant for the United States (click here), and further commented on possible effects of Honda’s new plant announcement at the same time Kia backed off its plans for a new facility in western Georgia (click here). Following up on those stories, Honda has announced the location for its new plant. Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois were the states vying for the new plant and its new jobs, and Indiana has won out.

Mitchell Daniels, governor of Indiana and Koichi Kondo, president and CEO of American Honda Motor Co. Inc., made the announcement together.
Almost thirty years ago, Honda identified a goal of building most of the vehicles it sells in the United States in North America, and has not lost any dedication to that goal. As part of that long-term strategy, the company has decided they are ready for a new North American assembly plant.
Honda will invest $550 million and expects to create about 2000 jobs. The plant is going to be built near Greensburg, Indiana, in Decatur County on a 1,700 acre site. The location is fifty miles southeast of Indianapolis, but only 100 miles from the Anna, Ohio, assembly plant that will provide four-cylinder engines for the products built in Greensburg. (Honda also wants more four-cylinder engines, so a new engine plant is being built in Canada, too, due to come on-line in 2008.) When up to speed, plant capacity will be for about 200,000 units, bringing Honda’s North American assembly capacity to more than 1.6 million cars and trucks.
What Products?
Honda has not announced which models will be built in Indiana, only that they will be small cars with four-cylinder engines. Logical candidates, given timing and demand, include the next-generation Fit and Civic or other Civic derivatives. The dedicated hybrid product due for the 2010 model year is confirmed for production in Japan. The Indiana plant’s capacity of 200,000 units is more than Honda sells of anything other than Civic and Accord. The new plant will be built around Honda’s flexible manufacturing system, which results in plants like the Alliston, Ontario, facility that builds the Civic coupe, Ridgeline, Odyssey, and Acura MDX. Or the Marysville facility that builds the Accord sedan and coupe, Acura TL, and Acura RDX.
As only Honda’s Civic and Accord sell in volumes above or even near 200,000 units, the new plant’s capacity is beyond most single models in Honda’s range. Also, Honda and other manufacturers understand the need for flexibility between models in this competitive environment and Honda has long put this understanding into practice. This will not be a one-vehicle plant. The next-generation Fit and/or the Civic or its derivatives are likely candidates for the new plant, perhaps a model not yet offered here.