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According to a report from Bloomberg, Honda will invest $267 million in a couple of Ohio plants that will manufacture its new Accord sedan set to be released next year. What’s more, 300 new jobs will be created in the process.
Honda officials said that the bulk of the investment ($220 million) would go on the purchase of upgrades like welding robots to the factory in Marysville while $47 million would be used to upgrade its plant near Anna that will be building Honda’s first turbocharged engine.
Before the announcement, Honda had said they would be making an extra $149 million investment in the plants in Georgia, Russells Point, and Tallapoosa, in Ohio. The three units will assembly the Accord’s 10-speed automatic transmission.
The money invested will help the Accord achieve a sportier feel with larger interior room and a lower stance. Honda did a similar thing to its Civic compact last year, which enabled the firm to remain competitive in a declining segment.
2018 Accord Expected to Be a Huge Success
Ray Mikiciuk who is in charge of the company’s U.S. sales said the redesigned Civic was “head and shoulders” above its competitors.
We fully expect the 2018 Accord to have the same impact on the mid-sized sedan segment,”
Mikiciuk said in an interview.
The assembly plant in Marysville will be equipped with a laser-based brazing robot so precise that it can glue together the top and sides of the vehicle without the need of the black plastic strip that hid the imperfections in previous models.
The Japanese car maker expects to sell around 330,000 Accord models by the end of the year even though sales dropped 4.5% last month from the same period last year.
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