Honda Confirms Acura EV Will be Built at New EV Hub

by Carl Malek | September 10, 2024

Honda updates its progress on the establishment of its first EV Hub in Marysville, Ohio. The new hub will expand Honda’s EV production capability and will be spearheaded by a new Acura model which will debut late next year.

Honda provided an update on the progress of its upcoming EV Hub which will not only include a retooling of the Marysville Assembly plant but also other smaller Ohio facilities.

Honda has made it clear that it intends to expand its presence in electrified vehicles with the company’s upcoming “0” Series of EV vehicles pushing the Japanese car giant into new territory. However, before those vehicles begin production, the company has to add more production flexibility to not only prepare for the assembly of these models but also other electrified vehicles to help expand Honda’s EV footprint.

This quest for enhanced production flexibility is starting to take shape at Honda’s Marysville, Ohio assembly plant with the company providing an update on the progress of construction of the Hub at Marysville which is set to play a big role in EV production once it’s fully completed.

EV Hub helps define the pace of retooling at Marysville

The Hub will help simplify EV production which will be key as Honda prepares to build its future EV models on a new in-house built platform.

Honda used the ongoing retooling of the Marysville, Ohio assembly plant as an opportunity to establish the EV Hub as part of a plan to streamline EV production by moving the assembly of these vehicles onto a single production line. This seemingly simple move required Honda to also undertake several other projects in the plant including the installation of the first die-casting machines that will make the cases for the Intelligent Power Unit (IPU) which will provide power to all future Honda and Acura EV models.

These castings will be interwoven into the broader production web with plant workers combining the battery modules made at L-H Battery Inc. with the castings made at the Anna engine plant to create two sizes of IPUs which will be put into different vehicles that will not only be assembled at Marysville, but also at the East Liberty Assembly Plant. Honda also revealed that it’s simplifying the production layout at the plants in an attempt to reduce complexities in the vehicle assembly plant. That even means reducing the amount of walking that plant workers need to do when assembling a vehicle. This has the added benefit of increasing the amount of space on hand for parts delivery and staging.

“In the spirit of the global Honda 0 Series of electric vehicles that we announced in January at CES, we are truly going back to zero, transforming our production environment to more human-friendly and environmentally responsible processes and materials,” said Fischer. “By optimizing the flow of processes we’re also making it easier for Honda associates to achieve the highest level of quality, efficiency and value for our customers.”

Acura EV model to be produced at EV Hub

The first production model to be built at the hub will be a new Acura EV based on the Performance EV concept.

Honda also confirmed that the first production model to be produced at the EV Hub will be an Acura EV based on the Performance EV Concept which made its debut during Monterey Car Week. Unlike Acura’s other EV the ZDX, the production version of this concept will not share underpinnings with GM’s Ultium models and will instead be built on a new platform that will be built in-house by Honda. The currently unnamed EV will provide a performance option for EV buyers and will also place a strong emphasis on style if much of the concept’s bold lines are carried over into production.

The appearance of the Acura EV will also coincide with Honda’s broader plan of starting EV production at Marysville in 2025 with the goal of having EVs represent 100% of its vehicle sales by 2040. This milestone also highlights how far the project has come since it was announced in 2022 with Honda investing $700 million into retooling the Marysville assembly plant as well as several other plants to help support the hub. In addition to that initial investment, Honda and LG Energy also invested an additional $3.5 billion into a new joint venture facility with the investment eventually growing to $4.4 billion by the time the facility is completed later this year.

In the meantime, Honda confirmed it will maintain a lineup of ICE and hybrid-equipped models to not only meet strong demand for these vehicles by many of its buyers but also provide a stream of revenue and funding into the aforementioned electrification initiatives especially as production and sales of the new EV models slowly begins to take shape.