Honda’s big picture outlook: Greensburg to play major role in company’s projections


Adam Huening - Greensburg Daily News

Published January 15, 2008 11:34 pm - Despite a shaky economy, Honda officials are openly optimistic about their continued success in North America, and the Greensburg plant will have a large role to play in it.

According to a press release issued by Honda Motor Corp., Honda plants produced a record number of vehicles in 2007. Of the various assembly plants, the ones in the U.S. had 1,015,462 units role off its lines making a total of 1,432,731 cars produced in North America. This included all-time best performances by four of its six auto plants in the region.

“It was the third straight record result and fourth consecutive year of continuous production growth for Honda in the U.S. and North America, and the first time that U.S. auto production exceeded 1 million units in a single year,” the press release read.

With Honda garnering record sales in North America, this meant 76 percent of all vehicles purchased domestically were made on the continent.

Officials for Honda are hoping this trend continues, and they are remaining optimistic despite recent concerns the housing slump might thrust the nation into a recession. According to a story in the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch yesterday, Takeo Fukui, Honda’s president and chief, said those fears did not factor into the company’s 2008 projections. Honda believes it will see 2.5 percent growth in the United States, which would take its sales over the 1.4 million mark.

“We're investigating the situation, but, so far, we haven't felt the impact directly. Either way, we have to watch the market very closely,” Fukui told the Dispatch through a translator.

In the same article, Fukui said Greensburg will play a role in that continued success. The local plant, Honda’s seventh assembly factory, will produce 200,000 Civics per year. This will help alleviate the load on East Liberty, Ohio, according to Ralph Kissel of Automotive News. With Greensburg rolling out Civics beginning in the fall, East Liberty can concentrate on meeting the demand for the newly redesigned CR-V, a small SUV crossover.

“Once we open up Indiana, it frees us up to build more CR-Vs in East Liberty,” John Mendel, executive vice president of automobile operations for American Honda Motor Co., told Automotive News.

The CR-V was a major boost to Honda’s sales in 2007, according to Kissel’s article. The little SUV’s sales increased 28.9 percent compared to 2006. The demand also caused Honda to replace Accord production in its El Salto, Mexico plant with the CR-V.

In Automotive News, Mendel said Greensburg’s plant would play an integral role from the moment it opened. The future, however, was undetermined.

“Because of flexible manufacturing, a lot of things are possibilities,” Mendel said. “But I think initially we’re going to stick with the Civic in Indiana.”

Mendel also hinted at the possibility of other models rolling off Greensburg’s lines in the coming years. Like the CR-V, Mendel told Automotive News that would be decided if “the capacity is limiting us in terms of sales of some other vehicle.”

Reports from the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch and Automotive News were used for this article.