Honda Motor Co. is making $355 million of upgrades at plants in Ohio, seeking productivity and fuel-economy gains for models designed and built in North America. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
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The Ohio projects for Japan’s first company to make cars in the U.S. include $166 million of improvements to its factory in East Liberty and a $64 million stamping press at its Marysville plant, said Ron Lietzke, spokesman for the company’s assembly unit. Honda wouldn’t provide the cost of the wind tunnel or other additions to its engineering center in Raymond.
“The driver of the projects is to improve all our characteristics,” Lietzke said in an interview, declining to say whether the changes will lead to greater output. “If we end up increasing production capacity as a result, that’s fine,” he said, without elaborating.
Honda is refurbishing factories as it prepares to restore full North American operations next month after parts shortages triggered by Japan’s March earthquake left Honda and Acura dealers short of models. The company’s U.S. sales slipped 2.6 percent this year through July, and market share fell to 9.3 percent from 10.6 percent as industrywide deliveries rose 11 percent.
Output at Honda’s auto-assembly plants in the U.S., Canada and Mexico plunged by 26 percent to 559,981 this year through July from 754,807 a year ago, according to company data.
