GREENSBURG — Honda on Wednesday celebrated the production of its 1 millionth car built at the Greensburg plant. The company also announced that its new 2016 Civic sedan will be produced in Greensburg.
Honda Manufacturing of Indiana began production Oct. 9, 2008 after investing about $800 million. The plant employs more than 2,000 employees and makes the Civic sedan. The 1 million vehicles also includes about 65,000 Acura ILX models, which were made in Greensburg until early this year before production was moved to Marysville, Ohio.
“We have come a long way from where Honda Manufacturing of Indiana started in 2008 to where we are today,” HMIN President Bob Nelson said in a press release. “Our associates have shown tremendous commitment and dedication to get us to this major milestone and we will continue to work to provide our customers with products of the highest quality. These values and beliefs are at the heart of what makes Honda great.”
Honda said the plant has produced about 421 vehicles per day, or about 17 per hour, since production began.
Greensburg native Kristen Fry, who works in the Purchasing New Model group, said in an email sent by Honda to the Daily News that she believes the millionth vehicle milestone “is just the beginning of bigger things to come.”
“I remember reading in the newspaper that Honda was coming to Greensburg, and I was so excited because that provided me an opportunity,” Fry said. “My favorite memory from producing our first Civic was finally seeing all the different departments come together, kind of like pieces in a puzzle, in order to achieve one common goal.”
Last week, Honda announced the 2016 Civic sedan at the New York International Auto Show. The company said in the press release that it “is preparing to launch its completely reimagined 10th-Generation Civic models beginning this fall.”
The Greensburg plant is one of eight Honda plants in North America, including four in the U.S. Honda said the plants can produce nearly 2 million vehicles per year. Last year about 98 percent of the Honda and Acura vehicles sold in the U.S. were made in North America, the company said. The company also said it “operates 16 major research and development centers in the U.S. with the capacity to fully design, develop and engineer many of the products Honda produces in North America.”