Honda to build $3 billion Ohio plant with 240,000-unit capacity

The plant is expected to focus on hybrids, while retaining the ability to build gasoline-powered and electric vehicles. It would raise Honda’s U.S. light-duty vehicle capacity to 1.3 million units annually. The company has 12 U.S. manufacturing plants, eight of them making engines or automobiles. The Ohio facility would be its first new mass-production vehicle assembly plant in the country since it opened an Indiana plant in 2008.

Automakers have been seeking to expand local production as tariffs and higher logistics costs weigh on profits. Honda’s announcement follows Audi’s plan, unveiled roughly two weeks earlier, to invest more than $4 billion in its first U.S. factory, in Georgia. General Motors, Ford, Toyota and Hyundai have also recently announced billions of dollars in spending on new or upgraded U.S. facilities.

In May, Honda indefinitely suspended an $11 billion plan to make electric vehicles and batteries in Canada and canceled three EVs intended for the U.S. market. The company says nearly all vehicles it sells in the United States, including Acura models, are made in North America, with more than 60% produced in the U.S.

Jennifer Thomas, American Honda Motor Co.’s senior vice president of corporate affairs, said in Detroit on Oct. 27 that the company was at capacity and exploring options to expand. She also warned of a “catastrophic” outcome for the auto industry if the U.S. and Canada fail to reach a new trade deal by year-end. President Donald Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on Canadian vehicles and parts from 25% to 50% on Jan. 1 if no deal is reached.

Honda says it has built more than 33 million vehicles and more than 39 million engines in the U.S. since beginning auto production there in 1982. It currently employs more than 30,000 people in the country.