Honda broke ground on a $470 million transmission plant in Celaya, Mexico, today.
The plant is expected to begin operations in the second half of 2015 with an initial annual production capacity of 350,000 units, eventually increasing to around 700,000 units per year. Honda said it expects to hire about 1,500 workers for the plant.
Honda said the plant will supply transmissions not only for its Mexico operations, but also for plants outside of the country. Production at the plant will be focused on continuously variable transmissions.
Along with transmission plants in Ohio and Georgia, the Celaya plant will help bump Honda's North American annual transmission production from about 1.4 million to more than 1.7 million units in 2016, the company said.
Construction of the transmission plant is under way next to the new $800 million assembly plant that is expected to begin production of the 2015 Honda Fit in the first half of 2014.
"With the growing skills of our new associates in Mexico we are establishing a new production base that will achieve outstanding global competitiveness," Tetsuo Iwamura, COO of Honda North American regional operations, said in a statement.
