Honda has started North American production of the redesigned 2015 Fit (Jazz) at its new plant in Mexico.
Honda de Mexico’s Celaya Plant increases the automaker’s annual automobile production capacity in North America to approximately 1.92m units. In 2013, more than 90% of its automobiles sold in the US were produced in North America; this is expected to exceed 95% when Celaya reaches full capacity.
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Located in Guanajuato state, the US$800m plant began production less than two years after construction started in early 2012 and will employ 3,200 workers with an annual capacity of 200,000 vehicles and engines when it reaches full production later this year. The plant will begin production late this year of a new compact SUV alongside the Fit.
Celaya plant, designed exclusively for subcompact vehicles, features a number of Honda’s most advanced manufacturing technologies, including several that were first introduced last year at the new Yorii plant in Japan, to increase quality and efficiency and reduce the plant’s environmental footprint. Key technologies include:
- A high-speed servo stamping press and adoption of a high-speed die change process that increases the efficiency of the stamping process by approximately 40%.
- A new, highly efficient general welder system which joins the vehicle body panels together, achieves a major reduction in the number of welding robots, while increasing the number of weld points for higher quality and efficiency.
- A new 3-coat/2-bake, water-based painting process (replacing the traditional 4-coat/3-bake process) to reduce energy consumption during the painting process by approximately 40%, while enhancing paint finish quality.
- A highly efficient production line intended to reduce the time and space for assembly processes, that includes a reduction in heavy-lifting processes for improved associate ergonomics, an increase of in-plant sub-assembly processes and new strategies that ensure both more efficient and more precise vehicle assembly.
- LED lighting was installed throughout the plant and vehicle yard to reduce energy usage.
Together with the new $470m transmission plant now under construction at the same site in Celaya, the new auto plant will play a significant role in the region as Honda’s North American operations take on increasing responsibilities within global Honda for product development, production and sales activities. The new transmission plant in Celaya is expected to begin production of continuously variable transmissions (CVT) in the second half of 2015, with employment of approximately 1,500.
The new plants will boost Honda’s capital investment in its North American operations to more than US$21bn. Honda employs over 33,000 in North America and now has four auto plants, two auto engine production facilities and two transmission plants in the United States, and two auto plants and an auto engine plant in Canada.
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By GlobalDataCelaya is Honda de Mexico’s second auto plant. The first plant, located near Guadalajara, was established in El Salto, Jalisco in 1995.
The redesigned Fit goes on sale in spring.
