Honda to roll into Indiana with $550 million assembly plant

Mumbai: Japanese car major Honda Motor Co is setting up its sixth US assembly plant in Greensburg, Indiana. The plant, expected to open in 2008, will cost $550 million and employ around 2,000, Koichi Kondo, CEO and president of Honda's North American operations, said.

Kondo, who did not specify the plans, said the plant will assemble 200,000 four-cylinder cars annually. Honda is heading to US Midwest for the first time after rival Toyota Motor Corp opened its Princeton, Indiana, facility in 1998.

Honda, the first Japanese auto company to set up base in the US and Japan's third-largest carmaker, preferred the North American site despite incentives offered by southern states.

The company's North American plants are currently running at full capacity amidst a 20 per cent rise in demand for its Civic small car and the start of production of CR-V and Acura RDX sport-utility vehicles at its Ohio plants. Honda needs the new plant to help it extend its US sales as it expands its model line.