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Our Honda crew rings in 2023 with a milestone – the manufacturing of the 30 millionth car in America. This achievement relies on the efforts of associates at our eight automotive manufacturing crops in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana and Ohio. They’re distinct amenities, linked in each spirit and expertise that started 40 years in the past with our very first automotive plant in America – the Marysville Automotive Plant in Ohio.
Reflecting on this achievement, it’s clear to me that what has been most vital to our success over the previous 4 a long time has not been our funding in new amenities – now totaling almost $20 billion – or the continual development of latest applied sciences and tools. Reasonably, it’s our funding in technology after technology of Honda associates who’ve honed their expertise to maintain tempo with altering expertise and the wants of our clients.
That is very true now, as Honda prepares for the electrified future – our imaginative and prescient to have battery and gas cell electrical autos account for 100% of our car gross sales in North America by 2040. – together with our plan to fabricate these autos right here in America throughout the subsequent few years.
Our path to the electrified future will likely be much like the narrative that led to our manufacturing of 30 million autos in America. A give attention to individuals.
I joined Honda 35 years in the past as an tools engineer within the paint division of that first plant in Ohio. That was in 1988, when our cumulative manufacturing was lower than 500,000 autos.
I used to be a younger engineer straight out of faculty, and I bear in mind we solely had one laptop in the entire workplace, and it was shared by everybody.
At present, superior expertise is the lifeblood of automotive manufacturing, requiring massive quantities of computing energy. The technological innovation we now have seen in all points of our lives is superb, together with the autos we manufacture for our clients. In actual fact, with the superior expertise in our autos in the present day – security sensing techniques and related automobile applied sciences – we most likely have extra computing energy in a single car than we had in your complete world. manufacturing unit after I joined Honda.
We opened a second Honda car plant in Ohio, and I used to be creating my expertise in manufacturing engineering and manufacturing planning when Honda determined to determine a brand new car and engine manufacturing plant in Alabama. I used to be requested to affix a small crew of skilled engineers from our crops in Ohio and Canada to assist construct and begin manufacturing on the new plant.
Our purpose was not simply to extend our manufacturing quantity, however to move on our expertise and expertise to a brand new technology of Honda associates. This type of problem, the place success calls for that all of us work collectively as one crew, has demonstrated that our most confirmed and true power comes from our crew of associates.
Over the previous 25 years, we now have continued to broaden our enterprise, and our eight automotive crops positioned in Ohio, Alabama and Indiana produce some 12 Honda and Acura autos, in addition to engines, transmissions and hybrid-electric techniques that energy them.
I spent most of that point at our Alabama auto plant, the place I ultimately served as plant supervisor. Considered one of my joys was spending time on the manufacturing flooring speaking with the individuals who make merchandise for our clients. And I have to say that seeing the expansion in experience and management has been a really rewarding expertise.
I am proud that my successor as head of the Alabama auto plant, Lamar Whitaker, is an area Honda affiliate I met when he joined the corporate the yr we began manufacturing. in 2001.
Now I’m again in Ohio…the place I will be a part of historical past repeating itself, in that we face one other nice problem as we embark on the thrilling journey to affect our Honda and Acura electrical autos. And once more, success will likely be outlined by the power of our associates to develop the talents and experience that will likely be shared throughout our US manufacturing community.
To that finish, we’re establishing an EV Hub in Ohio, with an funding of $700 million to retool three of our factories in Ohio to supply EVs and EV parts. And the Honda associates working on this new heart will develop the know-how and experience in electrical car manufacturing that will likely be shared throughout our North American automotive manufacturing operations for years to return.
This EV hub will embody a brand new EV Battery Plant, a $3.5 billion three way partnership funding with LG Power Resolution to fabricate batteries for EVs constructed at our Honda automotive crops.
These investments, which embody a give attention to attracting and getting ready the following technology of expert associates who will signify our manufacturing workforce of tomorrow, type the inspiration of our plan to supply electrical autos in our factories. Individuals.
Constructing 30 million autos in America is the direct results of the Honda associates, previous and current, who’ve made this important achievement attainable. Now our crew is tough at work making our 30 million American-made autos actually electrifying.
Bob Schwin
Senior Vice President
Honda Improvement and Manufacturing of America, LLC
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