Honda said it would add a second US production location for the Acura MDX luxury SUV to meet growing demand for its light trucks produced in North America.
Taking advantage of flexible manufacturing capabilities, the automaker will add MDX output at its East Liberty, Ohio plant in 2017. Production will continue at Lincoln, Alabama plant which also makes the MDX V6 engine.
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Honda will spend $85m on East Liberty to add new welding equipment, extend vehicle conveyors and make other changes for the MDX.
American Honda Motor executive vice president John Mendel said: “Increasing our flexibility and fully utilising available production resources is critical to our future growth, which will be driven heavily by our light truck business and new models like the Honda HR-V crossover and redesigned Pilot SUV.”
The automaker said 2014 was its second best sales year and last week reported a January sales record. Sales of Honda and Acura brand light trucks (including SUVs) were up 25.2% to 52,169 vehicles with Acura up 13.1 percent and Honda brand light trucks up 27.1% for the month.
East Liberty Plant currently produces the Acura RDX SUV, Honda Crosstour and CR-V. Lincoln builds the MDX, Honda Pilot SUV and Odyssey minivan.
The plant will add a new generation Honda Ridgeline pickup truck next year having built the old one which was axed earlier.
