Honda to build Acura NSX supercar in Ohio

USATODAY

MARYSVILLE, Ohio — Honda will build its Acura NSX supercar and assemble its performance engine here starting next year.

About 100 workers from Honda's other Marysville operations will be chosen to make the NSX. The engine will be assembled at its nearby Anna, Ohio, engine plant.

Ohio will be the sole source of the sports car that will be sold as an Acura in North America and a Honda in the rest of the world.

Honda is spending $70 million to transform a former logistics center into what it calls a Performance Manufacturing Center. Honda of America Chief Executive Hidenobu Iwata and Ohio Gov. John Kasich unfurled a banner proclaiming the building as the "Future Home of the Acura NSX."

"We have an outstanding team of engineers just down the road who will lead the development of the NSX," Iwata said in a speech. "It makes sense that we will renew the dream and build this high-tech, supercar right here in Marysville, Ohio."

The original NSX was Honda's first car with an all-aluminum body. It was built at Honda's Takanezawa, Japan, plant from 1990 to 2004 when production moved to its Suzuka, Japan, plant for a year.

Honda sold about 18,000 over 15 years, but sales fell to a few hundred, which led to the decision to discontinue the NSX in 2005. Enthusiasts have called for its return ever since.

The 184,000 square-foot Performance Manufacturing Center will be Honda's third auto assembly plant in Ohio. Unlike the Marysville and East Liberty, Ohio, plants, the new facility will have less automation. Much of the car and its engine will be hand built.

"In the coming days, we will begin to transfer about 100 associates from other plants to this project," Iwata said. Honda executive Clement D'Souza will lead the production team.

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Motor Trend estimates the NSX will be a $130,000 hybrid with a 3.7-liter V6 and three electric motors combining for 480 horsepower. Honda has only confirmed that it is a mid-mounted V6 that will be mated to an all-wheel-drive system.

John Spoltman, manager of the Anna plant, said the engine will be built on a separate line by workers who will be rewarded to produce it.

Honda was the first Japanese automaker to assemble vehicles in the United States, beginning in 1982. Last fall Honda marked the 30-year anniversary of the Accord rolling off the Marysville line.

In three decades, Honda has invested more than $12.3 billion in the U.S., including $8 billion in Ohio. The 900 engineers in Ohio are taking on increased responsibility for global development of Honda vehicles — including the NSX under chief engineer Ted Klaus — and the next-generation Civic for 2016.

Honda's seven plants in North America — which also include Alliston, Ontario; Greensburg, Ind.; Lincoln, Ala.; and Russells Point, Ohio — can produce 1.63 million vehicles a year. That will grow to 1.92 million cars when a new $800 million plant in Celaya, Mexico, starts production in 2014.