Honda has started construction of a new car plant in Thailand that will double annual capacity there to 240,000 units.
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The second plant, adjacent to the current factory, should start production in the second half of 2008 and could be expanded to 120,000-unit capacity, employing 2,200, the automaker said on Wednesday.
Honda said it was making the 6.2bn Thai baht (JPY23bn; $US207.5m) investment because it expected “further growth in demand for automobiles in Thailand and other markets in the Asia/Oceania region”.
Like all new car plants, it would be what Honda calls an “environmentally-responsible facility” with a “complete water recycling system”. That means no emissions of industrial water and the use of water-based paint with reduced volatile organics compounds emissions.
Solar panels generating electricity would contribute to a 10% reduction in CO2 emissions (compared with 2005), the automaker added.
The two plants would share production of the Accord (the larger ‘US’ model widely exported throughout Asia/Pacific, including Australia and New Zealand), Civic sedan, Jazz (Fit), CR-V and the emerging-markets-only City.
