Honda bets $3B on new Ohio plant, 2,000 jobs and a hybrid-first lineup

Honda Motor will spend $3 billion to build a new assembly plant in Ohio. The facility rises near the automaker's existing operations in Marysville, with production expected to begin in 2029, capacity for 240,000 vehicles a year and more than 2,000 new jobs. Honda says the plant will lean on hybrids, which have been gaining traction in the U.S., while staying flexible enough to build traditional gas vehicles and EVs.

The plant lifts Honda's U.S. light-duty vehicle capacity to 1.3 million units annually. It marks Honda's first new mass-production U.S. vehicle assembly plant since it opened a facility in Indiana in 2008. The company already runs 12 U.S. manufacturing plants, eight of which make engines or automobiles, and employs more than 30,000 people in the country. Since starting U.S. auto production in 1982, Honda has built over 33 million vehicles and more than 39 million engines there.

The move lands in the middle of a localization scramble. Automakers are pushing production closer to home as President Donald Trump's tariffs and inflated logistics costs eat into profits. Roughly two weeks before Honda's announcement, Volkswagen-owned Audi said it would invest more than $4 billion in its first U.S. manufacturing facility, in Georgia. General Motors, Ford Motor, Toyota Motor and Hyundai Motor have also recently pledged billions for new or upgraded U.S. facilities.

Honda's swing to Ohio follows a retreat from its EV blueprint. In May the automaker indefinitely suspended an $11 billion plan to produce all-electric vehicles and batteries in Canada, and it canceled three planned EVs for the U.S. market. Nearly all Honda vehicles sold in the U.S., including the Acura luxury brand, are built in North America, with more than 60% produced in the U.S.

American Honda executive Jennifer Thomas made the capacity crunch plain on Oct. 27 in Detroit. "In order to be competitive in this market, you're going to need to build products here," said Thomas, senior vice president of corporate affairs, adding that Honda is maxed out and exploring all options. She also warned of a "catastrophic" scenario if the U.S. and Canada fail to reach a new trade deal by the end of the year — Trump has threatened to double tariffs on Canadian vehicles and parts from 25% to 50% on Jan. 1 without one.