Honda Resumes Work on Yorii Plant

Japanese manufacturer Honda announced this week it will be building a new manufacturing facility in Japan in the years to come, in response to the increasing demand for its vehicles, as well as a new production line at an existing facility. The two new plants will be built in Saitama (the Yorii plant whose build was stopped due to the economic crisis) and as an expansion of its Suzuka factory.

The Yorii plant will commence manufacturing in 2013 and will be built on a 980,000 square meters surface. The facility, which will be used to produce eco-friendly vehicles, will employ 700 people and a series of technologies aimed at reducing the energy use.

"The Yorii plant will start with small-volume production of environmentally-responsible vehicles which requires highly sophisticated manufacturing technologies to mature its advanced technologies,” Takanobu Ito, Honda CEO said in a statement.

“Yorii will evolve such manufacturing technologies that are keys to the next-generation of Honda, to other Honda operations around the world to achieve the global growth of Honda.”

The second facility, to be built as part of the Suzuka factory, will focus on developing Honda vehicles in a cost and weight effective manner. Here, the carmaker will be building mini-vehicles starting 2012.

Separately, Honda also announced it plans to produce a plug-in hybrid vehicle, to be released on both the domestic and foreign markets in 2012. According to the limited info available so far, the plug-in hybrid will be capable of traveling for distances of up to 60 km (37 miles) using the electric motor alone.

“Honda will fulfill customer demand more precisely by developing and adopting multiple hybrid systems that are appropriate for vehicles of different sizes and use,” Ito added.