Honda Ohio Plant: $3 Billion Project Adds 2,000+ Jobs

Japanese automaker Honda said Nov. 9 that it will invest $3 billion to build a new Honda Ohio plant in Central Ohio, creating more than 2,000 new American jobs and adding planned capacity for 240,000 vehicles a year. In its announcement, the company said the plant is expected to begin production in 2029, pending final government approvals. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine joined Honda, JobsOhio, One Columbus and Union County officials for the news. The governor’s office said the same day that Honda’s total new commitment in Ohio is 2,390 new jobs and a new investment of $3.38 billion, including work at the Anna Engine Plant and Honda Transmission Plant-Ohio.

The new Honda Ohio plant will stand on land between Honda’s existing Marysville plant and the East Liberty plant. Honda said it will be the company’s fourth auto plant in Ohio and its ninth auto-related production facility in the United States, with the flexibility to build hybrid, gasoline-powered and battery-electric vehicles.

Key facts

Key facts: Manufacturers Lists. Plant investment, hiring, capacity and the 2029 timing are from Honda’s Nov. 9, 2026, newsroom release unless another source is named. The 2,390-job and $3.38 billion Ohio totals are from the Ohio governor’s office.

JobsOhio posted video from the Nov. 9 announcement:

Watch JobsOhio’s video of the announcement on X

What the New Honda Ohio Plant Will Build

Honda said the Central Ohio plant is meant to help it meet growing customer demand for hybrid vehicles in North America, while leaving room to build gasoline-powered and battery-electric models as well. That is the practical meaning of the flexible production lines described in the announcement: the same new plant is being set up so Honda can shift among those powertrains as demand changes, rather than tying the added 240,000-vehicle capacity to a single vehicle type.

The company also said that, when the plant comes online in 2029, it will be “one of the most advanced in the world,” with leading-edge automation, data-driven technologies and flexible production systems. That is Honda’s description of a plant that has not yet been built. Production remains expected in 2029, pending final government approvals, and the governor’s office said the start of construction is also pending those approvals.

The project was approved for a tax credit on Nov. 9 by the Ohio Tax Credit Authority, the governor’s office said. Honda also plans to pursue assistance from JobsOhio, “which will be made public after a final agreement is executed.” Neither release states a dollar amount for the tax credit or for any JobsOhio aid.

Bob Nelson, executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co., Inc., said in Honda’s announcement: “As Honda approaches 50 years of building products close to our customers in America, we are making one of the most significant commitments in our history to position Honda for the next 50 years. These investments strengthen America’s role as a cornerstone of Honda’s global future and reflect our confidence in our more than 30,000 Honda associates and the strength of American manufacturing.”

Honda said it chose Ohio in part for an established skilled workforce, the concentration of its U.S. supply base, nearby vehicle-development operations, and existing plants for vehicles, engines and hybrid systems, along with the L-H Battery Company joint venture, which Honda said will have the flexibility to produce battery cells for hybrid and all-electric vehicles.

Ohio Jobs in the Broader Commitment

The new assembly plant is the largest piece of the Ohio announcement, but it is not the whole of the Ohio jobs figure the state published with it. Honda’s newsroom release puts the plant itself at $3 billion and more than 2,000 jobs. The governor’s office uses “approximately $3 billion” and “more than 2,000 new jobs” for that plant, and then gives a wider state total: 2,390 new jobs and $3.38 billion, including investments at the Anna Engine Plant and Honda Transmission Plant-Ohio in Russells Point.

Russells Point Hybrid-System Retooling

At Honda Transmission Plant-Ohio in Russells Point, Honda said it has begun retooling to support production of two next-generation Honda hybrid systems, for compact and midsize vehicles as well as larger models built in North America. The company said that work will increase production capacity of hybrid systems in Ohio by 250 percent in the coming years, by turning an existing transmission line into a second hybrid-system line. The plant already builds a two-motor hybrid system for U.S.-made Honda vehicles, including the CR-V, Accord and Civic, and Honda said a next-generation hybrid system is scheduled to go into production there next year. Honda Transmission Plant-Ohio will also be the lead plant for a hybrid system for larger models.

Anna Engine Plant Retooling

At the Honda Anna Engine Plant, which Honda and the governor’s office both describe as Honda’s largest engine plant in the world, Honda said it is retooling an existing production line to build a next-generation four-cylinder Atkinson-cycle engine for future compact and midsize vehicles assembled in North America. It is also expanding an on-site parts consolidation center that Honda said is expected to begin operation next year.

Taken together, the new vehicle plant and the powertrain work at Russells Point and the Anna Engine Plant keep more of the hybrid system — the engine, the hybrid transaxle and final assembly — in Ohio rather than adding vehicle capacity alone.

Honda’s Ohio Footprint Since 1977

The governor’s office said Honda announced its first Ohio plant in 1977 and began building motorcycles in Marysville with 64 associates in 1979. In 1982, the same account said, Honda built “the first Japanese-brand car made in the United States” at the Marysville Auto Plant. Honda’s 2026 Digital FactBook, a company publication, likewise says the Marysville Auto Plant “was the first U.S. auto plant established by a Japanese automaker, beginning production of Accord on November 1, 1982.”

Since that start, the governor’s office said, Honda’s Ohio operations have grown to more than 15,000 associates and more than $15 billion in investment. Ohio is now home to the Marysville and East Liberty auto plants and the Performance Manufacturing Center; the Anna Engine Plant; Honda Transmission Plant-Ohio; what the governor’s office called Honda’s largest research and development center outside Japan; and the L-H Battery joint venture in Fayette County.

Honda’s FactBook lists 4,400 associates and 220,000-vehicle annual capacity at the existing Marysville plant, formally the Marysville Auto Plant, with a cumulative investment there of $5.5 billion. Those figures describe the current Marysville assembly plant, not the new Honda Ohio plant and not Honda’s statewide payroll. Axios Columbus, citing Honda data in a Nov. 12 report, published the same 4,400 and 220,000 figures and a statewide total of 15,000 employees.

The governor’s office also said Ohio ranks No. 1 in the nation in engine production and No. 2 in transmissions, and that about 100,000 Ohioans work in the auto industry.

A Wider U.S. and North American Build

The Ohio plant sits inside a broader set of investments Honda said it is making at operations in Ohio, Alabama and Georgia, with additional updates at Honda of Canada Manufacturing in Alliston, Ontario. Honda said those projects will raise its U.S. auto production capacity to approximately 1.3 million vehicles a year and its North American capacity to approximately 1.9 million.

In Alabama, Honda said it is investing in the Alabama Auto Plant, which will mark 25 years of vehicle production this fall, including equipment for a new V6 hybrid engine and a renovation of Line 1 so it can also build the Passport, now assembled only on Line 2. In Georgia, Honda Transmission Plant-Georgia, which now makes 10-speed automatic transmissions, will in the coming years begin building next-generation hybrid systems for larger vehicles on a new assembly line. In Ontario, Honda said it will retool Honda of Canada Manufacturing for next-generation hybrid-electric and gasoline-powered models, including the reintroduction of engine manufacturing.

Honda said that in May 2026 it announced plans to introduce 15 new Honda and Acura hybrid models globally by 2030, with North America expected to be the primary market for many of those vehicles. In a company recap of its North American manufacturing base, Honda also said that in 2025, nearly 99% of all Honda and Acura automobiles sold in the United States were made in North America. It now employs about 33,000 associates in North America at 18 plants, with current annual capacity of 1.6 million automobiles — the baseline Honda is comparing with the planned 1.9 million.

The through-line in Honda’s account is that it is adding U.S. vehicle capacity and Ohio hybrid-system capacity in order to build more of those vehicles close to the customers who buy them. The official numbers are still plans: more than 2,000 jobs and $3 billion for the new plant, 240,000 vehicles of planned annual capacity, and production expected in 2029 if the remaining approvals come through.

What to Watch Next

• Approvals and timing. Honda and the governor’s office both say production is expected to begin in 2029, pending final government approvals. The governor’s office said the start of construction is pending those approvals as well. No construction start date was published.
• Jobs. The official figure for the new plant is more than 2,000 jobs. The official figure for Honda’s new Ohio commitment, including Anna and Russells Point, is 2,390 jobs, according to the governor’s office. Hiring dates, wages and filled-to-date counts were not in the sources reviewed for this article.
• The dollar split. Honda puts the new plant at $3 billion. The governor’s office describes that plant investment as approximately $3 billion and the wider Ohio commitment as $3.38 billion. No official breakdown of the remaining Ohio dollars was published.
• Incentives. A state tax credit was approved on Nov. 9. The amount was not disclosed. Planned JobsOhio assistance is to be made public after a final agreement.
• Powertrains. Honda said a next-generation hybrid system is scheduled to go into production at Honda Transmission Plant-Ohio next year, and that Ohio hybrid-system capacity will rise 250 percent in the coming years. The new assembly plant is described as able to build hybrid, gasoline and battery-electric vehicles.

For other recent U.S. plant-investment coverage on this site, see Hyundai Translead’s Illinois expansion. For another large domestic manufacturing investment, see U.S. Steel’s Osceola DRI plant. More vehicle makers are listed in the Manufacturers Lists car manufacturers list.

Featured photo: Existing Honda Marysville Auto Plant, 2009, not the new plant. Wiki Historian N OH / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped)