Honda is feeling shifty and excited in Russells Point, Ohio. That’s where the company has been building transmissions for its US-assembled vehicles for 30 years. The transmissions have changed hugely in that time, but Honda’s commitment to quality has not. As Honda celebrates this milestone, here’s how the company’s investment into Ohio and the United States has evolved over the last 30 years.
Shifty Business?
In 1982, Honda opened its first auto assembly plant in the US. That factory, in Marysville, Ohio, built Accords using parts Honda shipped over from Japan. It didn’t take Honda long to decide it needed to make more in the US, though, especially as Accord sales exploded. In 1985, a new plant in Anna, Ohio, opened, building motorcycle engines the first year and Honda Civic four-cylinders and transmissions starting not long after.
By the 1990s, Honda was outproducing those sites, so it started work on another one. That new construction became the Honda Transmission Plant in Russells Point, Ohio. The plant opened in 1996, building four-speed automatics for US-assembled vehicles.
A decade later, four-speeds were out, replaced by five-speed automatics for better fuel efficiency, acceleration, and smoothness. A six-speed entered production in 2010 to improve things a little more. Now the plant builds the CVTs that go into the Civic, Accord, and CR-V, as well as the two-motor hybrid system that drives hybrid models of those three vehicles. Honda said it builds the system for the Prelude, too, which means Honda is actually shipping it back to Japan for installation in the car.
Honda didn’t say which, but there are several products that are made only at that plant and nowhere else in the world. Fittingly for the US market, it has never built manual-shift transmissions. Still, that’s quite a bit of history to mark the factory’s 30th birthday.
Five Honda Plants In A Little Cluster In Ohio
Honda has spent more than $1 billion on the plant, which can now build more than one million transmissions per year. It can also build 500,000 two-motor hybrid systems, and it builds transfer cases and differentials for Honda’s AWD models. Since it opened, the plant has built more than 26 million transmissions. That’s a lot of gears (or more recently, bands for CVTs).
The automaker now has four plants in a tight cluster northwest of Columbus. Anna builds the engines, Russells Point makes the transmissions, and East Liberty and Marysville assemble the vehicles. There’s a test track there too, to help with development, and the Performance Manufacturing Center where Honda hand-builds low-volume models like the last Acura NSX.
Honda says it has 15,400 workers in Ohio. The company has invested $14.5 billion in the state, and can now build 460,000 Honda and Acura vehicles every year, plus 1.2 million car engines with transmissions and hybrid systems to make them move.
“As we celebrate 30 years of Honda manufacturing excellence in Ohio, we’re not just reflecting on our history; we’re accelerating toward the future,” said Jason Foster, power unit manufacturing plant lead. “The unyielding continued commitment of TMP-O associates to producing top-quality drivetrains will allow us to continue building on the legacy we celebrate today.”
Honda has other production facilities in the US, including another transmission plant in Georgia building automatics for its V6 engines, and assembly plants in Alabama and Indiana. It also has two facilities building off-road products such as side-by-sides and ATVs.
