Honda commits to building an $11 billion electric vehicle center in Canada, starting operations in 2028
Honda on Thursday announced plans to push its electric vehicle supply chain to Canada, in a move it said recognizes the “long-term appeal of Canada’s electric vehicle manufacturing ecosystem.”
The investment is significant—$11 billion, including investments by joint venture partners—but it hasn’t actually committed to building an electric vehicle assembly plant. Honda said it “has begun evaluating the requirements to build an innovative and environmentally responsible Honda EV factory and stand-alone Honda EV battery plant in Alliston, Ontario.”
Honda has set a tentative start date of 2028 for the factory, which it says will produce up to 240,000 electric vehicles per year, of which the electric vehicle battery plant will produce up to 36 gigawatt hours per year. Honda will maintain the current headcount of 4,200 jobs at the plant but will add 1,000 new jobs to EV battery and EV-related facilities.
Honda Saloon Concept – 2024 CES
What’s proposed would also include a battery materials processing plant with South Korea’s POSCO, along with a joint venture battery separation plant with Japanese chemical giant Asahi Kasei, and Honda said that will result in “significant additional works” around the site.
It’s unclear whether next-generation batteries will play a big role at this new factory. Honda is developing its own solid-state electric vehicle batteries and sees them as the key to delivering more benefits Affordable small electric cars by 2030.
The automaker noted that it is seeking incentives from Canada and the province of Ontario for the facility.
Meanwhile, in its first step toward mass production of electric vehicles in the United States, Honda is establishing an Electric Vehicle Center in Ohio and will spend $700 million to retool its three factories there and build build a new joint venture worth $3.5 billion. battery factory with LG Energy Solutions. These facilities will have the flexibility to combine gasoline and electric models on the same production line, and Honda recently said the first facility, in Marysville, Ohio, will have the capacity to create hundreds of electric cars every day.
Honda 0 Saloon model
In Ohio, the company will assemble electric vehicles built on Honda’s next generation EV platform—combining a new molding process with super-massive molding machines larger than what Tesla is using in Texas. Across all Ohio EV Hub plants, based on battery capacity, Honda can produce 300,000 to 500,000 electric vehicles per year.
Under a separate agreement, Honda will also do assembly Electric vehicle for Sony-Honda Mobilitywith cars bearing the Afeela name and demonstrating a new vision of in-car entertainment that builds on Sony’s strengths.
