Honda close to a new hybrid plant in Ohio, Nikkei says

Nikkei reported on Thursday that Honda is in the final stage of preparations for a new hybrid plant in Ohio. Reuters carried the report the same morning. The figure in both accounts is ¥300 billion to ¥400 billion, which Reuters put at $1.90 billion to $2.53 billion. Production is expected in 2030. Honda has not confirmed the plant.

Honda has said nothing. The rest of the story is the newspaper. A buyer who treats it as a programme award would be tooling a factory the company has not named.

¥300–400bn

Nikkei’s range, via Reuters

2030

Production start, as reported

None

Honda confirmation, as of Thursday

What the paper added

Automotive World, citing the same Nikkei report, added the shape of the plant. It would be Honda’s eighth assembly plant in North America, and the first new site in about twenty years, near the Ohio factories it already runs. Capacity about 250,000 vehicles a year. Construction could start in 2027. The cars would be large hybrids, including SUVs longer than five metres. The start still depends on state subsidies being agreed.

Nikkei also put North America at 40 percent of Honda’s sales, and said the company expects to sell 1.7 million vehicles in the year to March 2027, up 6 percent. The Ohio plant sits inside a plan to lift North American capacity by about 10 percent, to more than 2 million a year. Reuters and Nikkei are the source. Honda has not issued those figures.

For a firm that already machines or stamps for Marysville, Anna or East Liberty, the purchase order has not changed. There is no site, no jobs number in the Reuters account, and no date a tool can be quoted against except 2030, and only if the subsidies close and Honda confirms the plant. Until then the work is the lines that are already running.