MARYSVILLE, Ohio — Honda is betting another $3 billion on the Ohio workers who have been building its cars for nearly half a century.
The automaker announced Monday that it will build a new auto plant on land between its Marysville and East Liberty plants in Union County, creating more than 2,000 jobs and adding capacity to build 240,000 vehicles a year, Honda said in its announcement. Production is expected to begin in 2029, pending final government approvals.
Count the rest of what Honda put on the table Monday — new work at the Anna Engine Plant and at Honda Transmission Plant-Ohio in Russells Point — and the company’s total new commitment in Ohio comes to 2,390 jobs and $3.38 billion, according to JobsOhio, the state’s private economic development corporation.
The plant will be Honda’s fourth auto plant in Ohio and its ninth auto-related production facility in the United States. Its lines will be built to switch between hybrid, gasoline-powered and battery-electric vehicles, and Honda says it will be one of the most advanced plants in the world when it opens, with leading-edge automation and flexible production systems.
“Ohio and its workforce have laid the groundwork that has written some of the most impactful chapters in Honda’s story of growth and innovation,” said Bob Nelson, executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co., Inc. “This investment reflects our commitment to building products close to our customers, and our confidence in the people, partners and communities of Ohio.”
Gov. Mike DeWine said Honda’s leadership “could have chosen to build this plant anywhere in the world, but they chose Ohio because there are so many advantages to being here.”
“For almost half a century, Honda and Ohio have grown together, and generations of families have built their careers on Honda’s manufacturing lines,” DeWine said. “Today’s announcement isn’t just an investment in a new facility — it’s an investment in Ohio’s people and Ohio’s future.”
What Ohio is putting in — and what nobody will price yet
The Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved a tax credit for the project Monday morning. Neither Honda nor JobsOhio said what that credit is worth. Honda also plans to pursue assistance from JobsOhio, and that package will not be made public until after a final agreement is signed, according to the JobsOhio announcement. Construction cannot start until government approvals are in hand.
So the public’s share of this deal exists. Its price tag, for now, does not — at least not anywhere Ohioans can read it.
JobsOhio President and CEO J.P. Nauseef called the plant “Honda’s first greenfield auto assembly facility of this scale in Ohio in more than 35 years,” adding, “Honda isn’t just investing in a new facility. It’s doubling down on our people, our manufacturing strength, and the next generation of workers who will build the future of the automotive industry.”
Jonas Peterson, president of One Columbus, the Columbus region’s economic development organization, said, “The message is unmistakable: the next generation of Honda has a home in the Columbus Region.”
More than one plant
Monday’s announcement reaches well past one new factory. Honda Transmission Plant-Ohio is retooling to build two next-generation hybrid systems, a project Honda says will increase Ohio’s hybrid system production capacity by 250 percent in the coming years, and the plant will serve as Honda’s lead plant for a new hybrid system for larger models. The Anna Engine Plant — the largest Honda engine plant in the world — is retooling a line to build a next-generation four-cylinder engine and expanding a parts consolidation center on site.
Together with projects in Alabama, Georgia and Canada, the new plant lifts Honda’s U.S. auto production capacity to about 1.3 million vehicles a year and its North American capacity to about 1.9 million, the company said. Honda announced in May that it plans to introduce 15 new Honda and Acura hybrid models globally by 2030, with North America the primary market for many of them.
Honda said it picked Ohio for the workforce, for the concentration of its suppliers nearby, for its vehicle development operations next door — including the North American Automotive Development Center and the Transportation Research Center — and for the L-H Battery Company joint venture plant in Fayette County, which will be able to produce battery cells for both hybrid and all-electric vehicles.
The voice that wasn’t there
One seat stayed empty Monday: labor’s. Honda’s Ohio operations employ more than 15,000 associates, and they are not unionized. The United Auto Workers has had Honda on the target list of its organizing drive aimed at nonunion auto plants since 2023, but the union issued no public statement on Monday’s announcement. Whether the more than 2,000 new jobs at this plant ever carry a union card is a fight that has not happened yet — and nobody at Monday’s celebration mentioned it.
Fifty years in
Honda announced its first Ohio plant in 1977 and began building motorcycles in Marysville in 1979 with 64 associates. In 1982, the Marysville Auto Plant built the first Japanese-brand car made in the United States. Ohio operations have since grown to more than 15,000 associates and more than $15 billion in investment, according to JobsOhio.
Ohio ranks first in the nation in engine production and second in transmissions, and about 100,000 Ohioans work in the auto industry. Honda buys parts from more than 750 suppliers across North America, many of them in Ohio communities whose paychecks rise and fall with the lines at Marysville and East Liberty.
That is what $3 billion means here. Not a press release — 2,000 more families in Union County and beyond who get to build a life within driving distance of home.
WATCH: Honda to build a $3 billion plant in Union County — our full report is in the video below.
