Honda Factory In Ohio To Be Global Manufacturing Hub

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A quiet revolution is taking place at Honda. It will soon begin using six new high pressure casting machines, each one capable of 6000 pounds of pressure, to create castings for its new cars, but that’s not the big news. Typically, such new manufacturing techniques would be incorporated into its factories in Japan before being installed in other locations. In a significant change to how the company usually does business, those new high pressure casting machines will be installed at the Honda engine factory in Anna, Ohio. According to CNBC, Honda has been using high pressure casting machines already, but the new equipment can develop almost twice as much pressure as the existing machines. Done correctly, high pressure casting can slash per-unit manufacturing costs by eliminating the welding of dozens of body parts by casting one single module, according to S&P Global Mobility.

“Honda is all in, and the rest of the world’s automakers should take note,” according to the Detroit Free Press. The company, which is notoriously cautious about adopting new technologies and famously frugal when making capital expenditures, is investing more than $1 billion to make its Ohio engineering and manufacturing complex the cornerstone of a global transition to electric vehicles that will affect every aspect of how it does business. The total North American EV investment Honda is making in conjunction with LG Chem and various mining and refining partners will exceed $16 billion. A big chunk of that investment will be in Canada, and we will return to that topic later.

Marysville Is Honda Centerpiece

The centerpiece of the new strategy for Honda is its factory in Marysville, Ohio, which will begin assembling the new battery-electric Acura RSX later this year. When introduced at CES 2025 a few weeks ago, Honda said it will be the first vehicle to use the ASIMO operating system that was developed in-house and is the modern version of the ASIMO humanoid robot first introduced 20 years ago. Since then, Honda has continued to advance its robotics technologies that recognize external environments and autonomous behavior control while understanding the intentions of people around it. By combining them with advanced intelligence technologies, Honda said it is striving to offer the value of software-defined vehicles in a way that is unique to the company.

The Marysville factory has already had one old production line dismantled to make room for a new one that will allow electric cars, hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and gas cars to be built on a single assembly line. That factory has been designated the company’s EV hub and will serve as a template for Honda to use at its other factories around the world. The company’s somewhat polarizing 0 Series electric cars will be assembled at the Marysville factory when (and if) they get the green light for production.

Building conventional cars, battery-electric, hybrid, and plug-in hybrid vehicles on a single assembly line is part of a plan by Honda to make sure that factory and the companies that supply it with parts have a stable revenue flow during the unpredictable transition to predominantly electric power. It’s an insurance policy against the kind of disruptions that have seen automakers including Ford and General Motors delay the introduction of new models and postpone the opening of new factories they have invested billions to build.

Unlike other car companies that are building new factories that can only produce battery-electric vehicles, the Marysville factory and the neighboring East Liberty SUV assembly plant will be able to build any combination of the four powertrains from 0 to 100%. That makes the plants less vulnerable to the whims of politics, trade, and technology. Marysville currently builds the Accord midsize sedan and the Civic and Acura Integra compact cars. East Liberty builds SUVs, including the Acura RDX and MDX and Honda CR-V. The Honda engine factory in Anna, Ohio, will also begin producing the large cast aluminum battery containers for the company’s electric vehicles.

Bold Steps For A Conservative Company

“Honda tends to be rather conservative on capital expenditures and do a good job on execution,” said Sam Abuelsamid, vice president for market research at consultant Telemetry Insights. “This creates a path forward that allows them to adapt easily to changing market conditions.” The new assembly process also means the Marysville plant will employ more people once it starts building EVs than it did when it was manufacturing only conventional cars at that factory. The loss of manufacturing jobs has been a widespread concern at other automakers, because electric cars have many fewer parts than cars powered by internal combustion engines. Honda plans to offset that trend by assembling its battery packs at the Marysville facility using the castings from  the Anna engine factory.

While other automakers rebuilt existing plants (GM’s Orion, Michigan, assembly plant, for instance) or created vast new manufacturing centers (Ford’s sprawling Blue Oval City in Tennessee), Honda will begin EV production without adding a single building or pouring a new slab of cement. In addition to saving money, that allows Honda to use existing infrastructure and logistics, and retain an experienced workforce with decades of practice building award-winning vehicles and drivetrains. “From a manufacturing standpoint, what Honda’s done seems very smart and well-executed,” Abuelsamid told the Detroit Free Press.

Once the improvements to the Marysville factory are completed, it will be able to produce roughly 220,000 vehicles annually, according to CNBC. To combine the battery cells into packs and packs into modules at the Marysville factory, Honda is installing 60 flexible manufacturing zones dedicated to the battery assembly process. Instead of a traditional assembly line that installs parts as a vehicle moves, the new production process will be parallel to the main line so any potential slowdowns or problems don’t impact the primary assembly process. “This is considered the second founding for Honda,” said Bob Schwyn, senior vice president of Honda Development and Manufacturing of America.

Despite slower than expected adoption of EVs in the US, the company maintains its previously announced goal of achieving zero environmental impact by 2050 through three critical action areas — carbon neutrality, clean energy, and resource circulation. That goal includes selling zero-emissions vehicles exclusively by 2040. The improvements at the Marysville factory include several new manufacturing processes and techniques that will lower emissions and reduce waste. That includes using a special form of structural aluminum for the battery cases made in the Anna factory that can be recycled and reused. “We’re using the opportunity to re-imagine our approach to manufacturing and create new value in the area of environmental responsibility,” Schwyn said. “This includes strategies to recapture our products at end-of-life and then recycle or reuse 100% of the materials — especially finite materials for EV batteries — to essentially make new Hondas out of old Hondas.”

The Rest Of The Story

Remember earlier we mentioned that Honda has made a significant investment in mining and refining battery materials in Canada? Specifically, it is pouring about $11 billion into that effort, primarily because Canada has abundant supplies of low cost zero emissions electricity from hydro power. In addition, both the federal and provincial governments have stepped up to offer generous incentives in order to promote more jobs in the electric vehicle sector. However, the new squabble over tariffs initiated by the unhinged power-mad potentate in the White House and his acolytes threatens to upend all of Honda’s carefully laid plans. How this will play out is not at all clear at the present time.

Some in Canada see an opportunity for their country to leverage its battery materials supply chain to help offset the massive advantage enjoyed by China at the present time, but that may simply be wishful thinking. We are in a time of unknowns that is making all business decisions fraught with uncertainty, which is exactly the opposite of what well-managed companies want. Would someone risk crashing the global economy just to score points and settle old scores? In this case, the answer is, “Yes, absolutely.” We are in uncharted waters with hazards all around. Round and round the wheel of fortune goes, and where it stops, nobody knows.

At CleanTechnica, we have been opponents of the “all of the above” strategy of building every sort of vehicle, but in light of recent events, perhaps Honda (and others) have the right approach to the future — build what sells. While that is a disappointment to many EV advocates, the bottom line is that companies have to be able to make a profit if they are to have a future in the auto industry. The upshot seems to be that EVs have to get cheaper if they are to have any chance of becoming the dominant technology so the world can reduce the amount of carbon emissions from transportation. Perhaps we need to readjust our focus and realize we cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good. That’s bitter medicine for some, but the sooner we swallow it, the sooner we can move on to cleaner transportation options.