Honda’s Acura unit said the new NSX hybrid supercar would be produced at a new ‘Performance Manufacturing Center’ in Ohio, a US$70m production facility of 184,000 sq ft to be housed inside the automaker’s former North American logistics facility alongside existing R&D and production engineering operations.
The site for the new production facility, a former seat factory which will become Honda’s third car plant in Ohio, is only a few miles from the automaker’s R&D centre, which is engineering the supercar for production, and adjacent to Honda’s Marysville car plant which builds the Accord and the Acura TL. The new plant is also close to Honda’s North American engineering centre for the development of new production technologies.
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Honda said the Performance Manufacturing Center would be “a unique manufacturing operation that will employ approximately 100 highly skilled manufacturing [workers] drawn from within existing operations in Ohio”. The engine plant in Anna, Ohio, will assemble the NSX powertrain.
Honda also announced that its R&D Americas chief engineer Ted Klaus is leading the global team developing the new NSX, and Clement D’ Souza, associate chief engineer at Honda of America, is leading the production engineering that will see the car launched in 2015.
The global R&D team includes designers and engineers in Los Angeles, California, and Raymond, Ohio.
The NSX will have a unique hybrid powertrain with an electric motor for each front wheel and a body structure incorporating a mid-mounted V6 mated to a new ‘Sport Hybrid SH-AWD’ (Super Handling All Wheel Drive) system with twin clutch transmission.
“We have a very clear understanding of the high customer expectations luxury buyers around the world have for a supercar, and our challenge is to exceed them and create new value for the customer,” said Klaus.
Ohio will be the sole global source for the NSX.
The original Acura NSX was built at the Takanezawa Plant in Japan from 1990 until production moved to Suzuka in early 2004 where it was produced until 2005. Part of the Tochigi factory, Takanezawa was the first factory worldwide to mass-produce an all-aluminum body and balance advanced production equipment with hands-on ‘craftsman’ processes, according to Honda.
