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Weekly UpdatesIN THE WORST OF automotive times, it was the best of news. And it arrived with an Indiana dateline.
While recent headlines have been dominated by worries over the precarious fates of domestic automakers and falling sales of most other automotive brands, the dedication of a new Honda plant in Greensburg was a rare example of good news and a bright future for the industry.
And that got a lot of attention for the area.
"Monday's grand opening of Honda Motor Co.'s Civic assembly plant in Greensburg was a dream come true for this town of 12,000," proclaimed the Detroit Free Press.
"The dark cloud that hangs menacingly over Detroit this week seemed light years away," remarked Automotive News. "Imagine that, an automotive celebration just a few hours away from Detroit in southeastern Indiana."
"The rise of Honda's mammoth new car plant in America's farming heartland is a stark contrast to the layoffs and plant closings announced in recent months by General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., and Chrysler LLC," noted The Japan Times.
The new Indiana plant will make the Honda Civic, a fuel-efficient vehicle that was introduced in the United States some 35 years ago and has already racked up more than 300,000 sales across the country in 2008. Those numbers are up slightly over 2007, bucking a trend of declining U.S. sales faced by almost every automaker.
While fuel efficiency is a hallmark of the Civic, which gets between 25 and 36 miles per gallon, it was the efficiency of Indiana workers that caught the attention of Takeo Fukui, president and CEO of Honda Motor Company, Ltd.
"The entire world of Honda has great 'Civic Pride' in our team of associates in Indiana," says Fukui, who came to Indiana to attend the dedication. "Each Honda associate here in Indiana plays a direct and important role in our ability to meet the needs of our customers. Our challenge is to continue to deliver products of the highest quality, produced with the highest efficiency."
To mark the dedication, Yuzo Uenohara, president of Honda Manufacturing of Indiana drove a new Civic off the production line with three new Honda associates as passengers. Daphna Tubbs of Greensburg, Willard Jones of Indianapolis and Pam Manis of Sunman were cheered by hundreds of fellow employees dressed in the company's white suits and green hats. Uenohara notes the modern plant continues Honda's practice of minimizing manufacturing waste and is the first U.S. facility to feature an on-site parts consolidation center that reduces transportation and handling costs.
The new Greensburg facility was announced in 2006 while Governor Mitch Daniels was on a trip to Tokyo seeking investment in Indiana. After an extensive site selection process that weighed the state's logistics industry and infrastructure and its proximity to existing Honda supplies, Greensburg was chosen and work on the 1,700-acre site along 1-74 began in March 2007.
"Honda is the kind of company Hoosiers admire and a company we welcome with open arms," Daniels says. "We are thrilled by the thousands of jobs that Honda brings to our state and we are excited for the future of southeast Indiana and the opportunities ahead."
The new $550 million plant is a comprehensive production facility that includes metal stamping, plastic injection molding, subassembly and final assembly When it announced that some 2,000 jobs would be created as production ramps up to 200,000 cars per year, the company was swamped with more than 30,000 applicants. Current employment is nearing 1,000 and is expected to double when the plant adds a second shift.
New model scheduled.
Although the grand opening of the new plant was certainly big news, it is not the only major announcement Honda is making from Indiana. The company is also promising to make its newest plant the exclusive production site of it most environmentally friendly vehicle.
While the Greensburg facility currently produces sedans featuring a 140-horsepower, 1.8-liter, 16-valve, 4-cylinder gasoline engine made at a Honda engine plant in Ohio, a compressed natural-gas version of the vehicle will come to the Hoosier state next year. Honda plans to shift production its "GX" version of the Civic to Greensburg in 2009. That vehicle is currently manufactured in East Liberty, Ohio, where 2,000 were produced this year.
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The GX Civic, which has a range of 225 to 250 miles, uses no gasoline and produces "near-zero" emissions. Honda says the natural gas vehicle has the cleanest internal-combustion vehicle in the world and it has been named "America's Greenest Car" by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
In addition to its clean operation, the vehicle is being promoted as a way to provide transportation that doesn't require imported oil. The compressed natural gas is available at public fueling stations in a number of states and can also be used with an optional home refueling system.
Honda brings hope
Facility expects to employ 2,000 and produce 200,000 vehicles and annually including the natural-gas powered Civic, "America's Greenest Car.
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