Honda Motor is ramping up production in the US and expects to double exports from the country to 200,000 in the next few years.
The company will export about 100,000 units this year to markets in Europe, South America and Asia, said Rick Schostek, senior vice president of Honda of America Manufacturing, adding: “That number will double in the next couple of years.”
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He said that Honda will invest US$40m in its Indiana plant to increase annual production capacity by 50,000 units, to a total of 250,000 vehicles.
The Greensburg factory will hire roughly 300 new workers later this year in preparation for the increased production that will add the Civic hybrid. Last year the plant started a second shift which an additional 1,000 jobs
Shostek said: “Nine of the 10 Honda and Acura vehicles we sell in the US will be built here.” He added that the North American operations will also take on a larger role in the development of key models such as the mid-sized [wide-body] Accord.
Honda announced in August last year that it would build a new assembly plant in central Mexico, due to open in 2014. Expansion there and at Indiana will raise Honda’s total production capacity in North America, including Mexico and Canada, to 1.92m units by the middle of the decade.
