Honda's new EV production revolution begins with $1 billion investment in Ohio

Marysville, Ohio – Honda -Motor Launches the next generation of his production in a historically unusual place for the 75-year-old Japanese car maker: Ohio.

Honda is completing more than $ 1 billion in new investments – increased on Wednesday from an initially announced $ 700 million – in the State this year. Upgrades are in particular the installation of six “giga presses”, which were made known by TeslaAnd a new 'cell' production system for its upcoming battery cases for electric vehicles.

The emerging EV -Hub of the Ohio company, including a separate battery plant of $ 3.5 billion, will be the flagship for the global production activities of Honda. This includes, among other things, that the car factory in Marysville is able to produce traditional vehicles, hybrids and EVs on the same assembly line, said civil servants during a day -long tour through the activities.

“The Honda EV-Hub in Ohio sets the global standard for EV production for people, for technology and for processes,” said Mike Fischer, North American leading role for the battery-electric vehicle projects from Honda. “While we expand EV production regionally and worldwide, this is the footprint and the characteristic performance that will be used.”

Usually such important production changes would start in Japan's home country and then rolled out to facilities in the US and elsewhere, according to company officials.

The Ohio Investments were initially announced in October 2022 as part of the Push to On-Shore production of the BIDEN administration. They remain important in the midst of threats of potential increases of rates for imported products such as cars by President Donald Trump.

In 2024, Honda produced more than 1 million vehicles at five American assembly factories. About 64% were sold in the US, while the rest were exported. It has one assembly factory in Mexico.

Once completed, Honda can produce around 220,000 vehicles annually in the factory in Marysville, located in Central Ohio outside Columbus. The facility of 4 million square feet currently produces various Honda and Acura vehicles, which are expected to be accompanied later this year by a fully electrical Acura RSX-Crossover-the first EV produced by Honda.

The Japanese car maker was too late to invest in EVs compared to other car manufacturers. It currently sells two fully electric crossovers-dog prologue and acura zdx-in the US, but those vehicles are produced by General Motors In Mexico.

The new Acura -Crossover is followed by the Honda 0 SUV and Honda 0 Saloon EV prototypes The company debuted last month in CES in Las Vegas.

The aluminum battery packages for the new EVs are produced in the nearby Honda motor complex in Anna, Ohio-the largest motorcycle facility of the company worldwide that grew from a small rectangular building to a plant of more than 2.8 million square base in 1985.

“We establish this large aluminum production technology for all Honda,” said Tim Stroh, EV -battery case leader. “The goal here is to roll that out to other products, other factors around the world.”

In order to produce the battery packages and other EV components, as well as possible engines in the future, the company installs six massive, 6000 tons of high-pressure that cast machines that will be “megacast” or “gigacast” materials. The solid machines are the size of a small house and use an enormous amount of pressure to form parts. The current Honda presses go up to 3,500 tons in Ohio.

Correctly done, gigacasting theoretically can lower production costs per unit by eliminating the welding of dozens of body parts by throwing a single module, according to S&P Global Mobility.

Once the packages are cast, they are sent from Anna to Marysville and other plants to have battery cells from Honda's joint venture operations installed with LG Energy Solution before they are used in the final assembly of EVs.

To combine the battery cells and packaging in Marysville, Honda installs nearly 60 flexible production cells, or zones, for the battery assembly. Instead of a traditional assembly line, where parts are installed as a vehicle movements, the new production process performs parallel to the main line in zones that make it so that potential delays or problems do not affect the main line.

“This is considered the second establishment for Honda,” said Bob Schwyn, senior vice president of Honda Development and Manufacturing of America. “We use the possibility to re -imagine our production approach.”

Honda has referred to his transition to electric vehicles, including fuel cells, as his 'second establishment'. Despite slower than expected acceptance of EVs in the US, the company maintains previously announced goal to achieve zero environmental effect by 2050, via three critical action areas: carbon neutrality, clean energy and circulation of resources.

These goals also include exclusively selling zero emission vehicles by 2040. Many other car manufacturers have delayed or withdrawn such goals in recent years.

The more than $ 1 billion investments in the current OHIO facilities also include various new production processes and techniques to lower emissions and waste, including the use of a special form of structural aluminum for the EV battery packages that can be recycled and reused.

“We use the possibility to re -invent our approach to production and to create new value in the field of environmental responsibility,” said Schwyn. “This includes strategies to reclaim our products at the end of the lifespan and then to recycle or reuse 100% of the materials, in particular finite materials for EV batteries to make new dogas from old Hondas.”