By Kirk Johannesen, The Republic senior reporter
GREENSBURG - Nine months after Honda Motor Co. announced it was coming to Decatur County, Honda revealed Monday that its new $550 million auto plant will build Civic sedans.
The plant, located on 1,700 acres northwest of Greensburg, will be known as Honda Manufacturing of Indiana, company officials said during groundbreaking ceremonies. It is Honda's seventh in North America and first in Indiana.
"We are breaking new ground in our relationship with the people of Indiana and our customers in America," said Koichi Kondo, president and CEO of American Honda Motor Co.
The Civic was introduced in 1973 and helped establish Honda as a company.
Production of Civic sedans is slated to begin in the fall of 2008.
"This is a very important product for our company, and building the Civic is a big responsibility," Kondo said. "That should tell you how confident we are in the people of Indiana."
Honda announced in June that the plant is expected to build 200,000 cars and employ 2,000 people when it reaches peak capacity.
The decision to make Civic sedans at the Greensburg plant was based on demand.
Initially, Honda said it would build a fuel-efficient, four-cylinder vehicle in Decatur County.
Kondo said the Civic and CR-V were considered for the Greensburg plant but choosing the Civic was an easy decision because its sales volume is significantly larger than the CR-V.
America Honda sold 316,639 Civics in 2006, nearly double CR-V sales.
Kondo said building Civics at the Greensburg plant is part of its growth strategy.
Production growing
Honda's total production capacity for North America is approximately 1.4 million vehicles. The goal is to expand that to 2 million by 2010.
Kondo said Civic production needed to be increased to meet the sales demand.
The Civic is being built at plants in East Liberty, Ohio, and Alliston, Ontario, Canada.
Kondo said production at some plants is being rearranged, and some Civic units in East Liberty would be transferred to Greensburg.
Civic production capacity is more than 300,000, but would increase to more than 400,000 with the Greensburg plant, Kondo said.
Honda's flexible manufacturing system allows vehicle production to be shifted among plants, and could allow for different types of vehicles to be built at the Greensburg plant, said Jeffrey Smith, assistant vice president of American Honda Motor Co.
Major operations at the plant will include stamping, welding, painting, plastic injection molding and assembly.
Honda officials said construction of the plant is on schedule.
Shane McCoy, senior manager of support services for HMIN, said steel will be shipped here later in the week, so framing of the plant will begin soon. Employees should move into the plant by late spring or early summer of 2008.
Decatur County Commissioner Jerome Buening believes Honda will have a positive impact on Decatur County residents.
"The prospect for enhancing the quality of life for us and our children and grandchildren is greatly increased," Buening said.
Honda began accepting applications for 18 technical positions early this year. More than 6,000 people applied. Honda has temporarily closed those jobs to review the applications, Smith said.
"There's no shortage of people who want to work for Honda," Smith said. "There's an unstoppable flood of enthusiasm."
Hiring of about 2,000 production associates will begin in the fall. Smith expects a huge volume of applicants.
Indiana Workforce Development will initially screen potential employees before Honda conducts interviews.
Initial training of associates will be in Ohio.
About 100 employees from other Honda plants are relocating to Greensburg. McCoy said most are relocating from Ohio plants.
Some have experience in launching new plants; others have experience with daily operations.
Yuzo Uenohara, president of Honda Manufacturing of Indiana, is coming from the plant in Lincoln, Ala.
He helped launch that plant in 2001 and was senior vice president of manufacturing operations.
