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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowHonda says it will build a $3.5 billion joint-venture battery factory in rural southern Ohio and hire 2,200 people to staff it as the company starts to turn the state into its North American electric vehicle hub.
The company had been expected to choose either Ohio, where it has a plant in Marysville, or Indiana, where it has a plant in Greensburg, for the battery factory. It announced Ohio as the location on Tuesday.
Honda, which announced its first Ohio factory 45 years ago, also plans to invest $700 million and add 300 jobs at three of its own Ohio factories to prepare them to start making EVs and components.
The battery plant, to be built jointly with LG Energy Solution of South Korea, could see a total investment of $4.4 billion. The plant site is off Interstate 71 in Fayette County, about 40 miles southwest of the state capital of Columbus.
In addition, Honda’s assembly plants in Marysville and East Liberty, northeast of Columbus, and its engine plant in Anna north of Dayton, will share in the $700 million investment. The Anna plant will make cases to hold the battery cells, while the other two plants will build complete electric vehicles.
Construction on the battery plant will start early next year, with mass production of pouch-type lithium-ion cells to begin by the end of 2025. The plant will produce batteries exclusively for Honda vehicles assembled in North America, including the company’s Acura luxury brand.
Bob Nelson, Honda executive vice president, said the company is still working out details of an incentive package with the state of Ohio for the battery plant, to be run by the joint venture that will be formed this year.
“We feel the resources will be good to run and operate the facility,” he told reporters. “This will give us a good chance to have an impact on the community.”
Honda has major operations in Indiana. Its Greensburg plant employs 2,500 people and manufactures the Civic sedan, CR-V, CR-V Hybrid and Insight Hybrid models. It will begin making the new Civic Hatchback at the plant later this year.
Last week Honda showed off the design of its Prologue electric SUV that will be developed on General Motors’ Ultium electric vehicle platform and will go on sale in 2024. The Prologue will be a little larger than the current CR-V. Nelson wouldn’t say where the Prologue will be built.
Honda plans to start selling models built on its own EV underpinnings starting in 2026, but it will also continue to co-develop affordable EVs with GM, to be built by Honda. The Japanese automaker plans to introduce 30 new electric vehicles globally by 2030, with plans to sell all zero-emission automobiles by 2040.
Company workers in Ohio have been building gas-electric hybrid vehicles for years, and that experience will help in the switch to EVs, Nelson said. The Marysville plant currently employs 3,500 people, while East Liberty has 2,500. The Anna engine plant has about 2,300 workers.
Honda’s announcement follows several waves of battery and electric vehicle assembly plant announcements in the U.S. and North America as automakers try to establish a domestic supply chain for the next generation of vehicle propulsion. Ford, General Motors, Toyota, Hyundai-Kia, Stellantis and VinFast of Vietnam have announced plans for 10 U.S. battery plants, many with joint venture companies.
In addition, Ford, GM, Hyundai-Kia and VinFast have announced plans to build new electric vehicle assembly plants in the U.S., or to retool older plants to handle EVs.
A new U.S. law, the Inflation Reduction Act, gives them even more incentive to build batteries in North America. It includes a tax credit of up to $7,500 that could be used to defray the cost of purchasing an electric vehicle. But to qualify for the full credit, the electric vehicle must contain a battery built in North America with 40% of the metals mined or recycled on the continent.
Nelson said the company has been planning the battery and plant investments for years, well ahead of the law’s passage earlier this year.
Electric vehicle sales are expected to rise dramatically between now and 2030 in the U.S. and globally, but even at the start of the next decade, they will be just over one-third of U.S. new vehicle sales. The LMC Automotive consulting firm expects EVs to be 5.6% of U.S. sales this year, rising to 13.5% by 2025 and 36.4% in 2030.
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It seems like we keep losing to Ohio. Why is that?
We don’t have the workers. Maybe another tax refund would help.
Joe B, I would like to think that Indiana should market itself differently to lure workers from neighboring states. Basically, if a company builds a major factor in Indiana, im sure people from all over would mover here to fill those jobs. No one state can supply all the workers needed, so im sure even Texas, California, Georgia, Florida ect all depend on people from other states moving in to help their states economies. Indiana has to rebrand itself and take a page from those states that are successful but the governing body in Indiana has to change its mindset. They’re way out of step with the generation and business atmosphere of today. We’re stuck in the 80’s here and that’s why even homegrown talent leave for more progressive thinking states.
Indiana should market itself differently, I agree. But companies aren’t going to build here unless we bribe them with incentives and, even then, why would workers want to move here in a red hot labor market?
We consistently refuse to invest in the future and we have no interest in being a state appealing to outsiders. We apparently want to be the Mississippi of the North, and the only workers we get are for distribution centers … which automation will replace soon enough.
We are the fools in the Bible who, when given money to invest, instead bury it.
Change is bad, same o same o is good.
New ideas come here to die.
Welcome to Indiana..
Once again, Ohio and MIchigan and Illinois come out on top in these selection processes.
We don’t have the political clout to win these things. Too bad.
Has Illinois landed even a single major EV investment yet?
Regardless, the real competition is China, and within the US the Sunbelt. This is true for nearly all forms of advanced manufacturing from chips to electric vehicles. The fact that Midwest states win a few nice deals shouldn’t distract us from understanding that overall trend.
HEY! we have a fat bank account,BUT in Indiana, we won’t support schools, sidewalks, childcare, preschools, kindergarten, rual roads, really most any modern quality of life issues.
we lost amazon for same issue(s) 😥
We’re to damn cheap for own good..
and we pass idiotic laws to fill our few remaining wetlands.
We have a doofus acting as governor.
Congrats, backwards Hoosiers!!!
Thank u very much,go orangeman!
Too much Red tape! Need new thinkers and investors from everywhere like every other thriving place has!
and we pass idiotic laws to fill our few remaining wetlands.
“A state that works.” Does that motto refer to the state government? Or to the state’s private sector workforce? Either way, it seems the motto does not accurately reflect the truth of what happens (or, more accurately, what doesn’t happen) in Indiana.
Indiana: A State That Works two jobs to try to make ends meet.
Hydrogen is the next natural step, Cummings is heading that way. Batteries/EVs are just not a well thought out idea. Too many holes in their plan.