Honda to Invest Massively in Ohio for EV, Battery Production
Honda, which is a far distant runner in the EV race, this week announced major investments in Ohio, where it already builds the Accord Hybrid and CR-V Hybrid, not to mention the discontinued Insight.
First, Honda will spend $700 million USD (approx. $975 million CAD) to upgrade and retool its vehicle plants in Marysville and East Liberty as well as its engine plant in Anna to start manufacturing EVs. These vehicles will be sold in North America starting in 2026 and based on Honda’s new e:Architecture.
Next, Honda and LG Energy Solution will invest up to $4.4 billion USD (approx. $6.1 billion CAD) in a joint-venture battery plant near Columbus. The two companies plan to begin construction in early 2023 in order to complete the new production facility by the end of 2024.
The plant aims to have approximately 40GWh of annual production capacity as it starts mass production of pouch-type lithium-ion batteries by the end of 2025.
These Honda facilities, along with the new EV battery plant, will serve as a new EV hub in North America. The automaker aims for battery-electric and fuel cell electric vehicles to represent 100 percent of its vehicle sales across the continent by 2040.
In related news, Honda and Sony have just shared more details about their new joint venture announced in March. Described as a software-oriented mobility tech company, Sony Honda Mobility plans to assemble its first product at a yet-unnamed Honda plant in North America.
Preorders are expected to begin in the first half of 2025, with sales to follow before the end of that year. Deliveries in the U.S. will start in spring 2026 and in Japan a few months later. Kind of ironic that two Japanese companies will be producing a vehicle overseas and importing it to their domestic market, don’t you think?