Honda announced on March 13, that as part of its shift to EV production, it would move the assembly of its Accord sedan to Indiana in 2025 after more than 40 years of production in Marysville, Ohio.
The move follows the announcement made in October by Honda and South Korea’s LG Energy solution to build a $4.4 billion joint-venture battery plant at a site near Jefferson, Ohio, which broke ground earlier this month.
The battery factory, which is expected to be finished by the end of 2024, will have a floor area of more than 2 million square feet and a production capacity of roughly 40 Gigawatt hours (GWh) per year.
Honda announced last year that it would invest $700 million in three Ohio plants, including Marysville, to retool them for the manufacturing of EVs by 2026. According to the corporation, Marysville will merge its two production lines into one in order to start developing the EV infrastructure as early as January.
Honda became the first Japanese automaker to manufacture vehicles in the United States when it started building the Accord at its Marysville facility in November 1982. Since then, the Ohio plant has produced more than 12.5 million Accords. With 362,700 sales in 1989, the Accord became the first Japanese automobile to hold the title of best-selling model in the U.S.
However, Americans have been switching from sedans to sport utility and crossover vehicles in recent years. In the U.S., Honda sold 154,600 Accords in 2018, a 24% decrease from 2021.
To prepare for the manufacturing of battery cases for EV models, Honda’s Anna, Ohio engine facility will relocate production of some engine components to a Honda engine plant in Alabama, while the company’s transmission factory in Georgia will dedicate one production line to e-axle production, a critical EV component.
