Honda: More than four billion dollars for e-cars in the USA
Japanese automaker Honda has now officially announced two major investments in Ohio in the US, including $700 million to convert several of its existing car and powertrain plants to produce electric cars. The JV battery plant is to be located - subject to final approval by the US authorities - in Fayette County, about 70 kilometres southwest of Ohio's capital Columbus.
According to a recent announcement, Honda plans to transform both the Marysville Auto Plant (MAP) and East Liberty Auto Plant (ELP), as well as the Anna Engine Plant (AEP) - Honda's largest engine plant in the world - for the electrified future, creating more than 300 new jobs at the same time. Honda plans to begin producing and selling electric cars in the US in 2026, based on the new Honda e: Architecture. Together with the new battery plant, an EV hub is to be created in Ohio. The four factories will thus play a key role in Honda's e-car production for the North American market. By 2040 at the latest, Honda wants to sell only purely electric models worldwide.
Honda plans to source the battery cells for its e-cars from a new joint venture with LGES. The plan is to produce pouch cells, Honda said. The plant, for which the two companies are spending 3.5 billion US dollars, is to create 2200 new jobs. The two companies want to start building the battery factory in early 2023 and complete it by the end of 2024. By the end of 2025, mass production of battery modules is to be fully up and running, with an annual production capacity of about 40 GWh.
Honda has been producing cars in North America for 40 years, beginning in November 1982 at the Marysville Auto Plant. Over the past four decades, Honda has steadily expanded local production capacity and currently employs more than 30,000 people at 18 plants with an annual capacity approaching two million cars and nearly 4 million engines. By 2021, the Japanese will have manufactured more than 95 per cent of all Honda and Acura cars sold in the US in North America.