The ninth generation Honda Accord, a perennial Top Ten seller faces unprecedented competition from Toyota Camry – all new in 2011 and the best selling U.S. car, Nissan Altima, Ford Fusion and Chevrolet Malibu, among others.
The 10 millionth U.S.-built Honda Accord rolled off the assembly line today at Honda’s first U.S. auto plant in Marysville, Ohio, as all four U.S. Honda plants marked the cumulative production of 20 million automobiles in the U.S. Honda also marked the achievement at two engine and two transmission plants that build the powertrains used in Honda’s U.S.-built cars and trucks.
The Marysville Auto Plant, of course, is the site where the first Honda Accord was produced in America on 1 November 1982. This made Honda the first Japanese automaker to begin production of automobiles in the United States, a move that caught Toyota and Nissan the two reigning Japanese sales giants by surprise. Since then, Honda established automobile manufacturing operations in East Liberty, Ohio, Lincoln, Ala., and Greensburg, Ind. Toyota and Nissan eventually followed with U.S. plants.
Honda’s U.S. plants now assemble 11 different models, including four passenger cars and seven light trucks. A fifth U.S. plant, the so-called Performance Manufacturing Center, is under construction in Marysville, Ohio, and next year will become the exclusive global production location for the next generation Acura NSX.
Honda’s U.S. plants produced a record 1,309,917 automobiles in 2013, an increase of 7.4% from the former annual mark set in 2012. Honda has 533 suppliers in the U.S., with purchasing of parts and components last year exceeding $23 billion.
Workers at Marysville have been building the Accord since production began nearly 32 years ago. During that time, they have produced the vast majority of Accords for the U.S. – where it is a perennial Top Ten sales model – and other markets. Today, the plant produces the Accord Sedan, Coupe and the Accord Hybrid. Accord models also were produced for four years at the East Liberty Auto Plant and two years at Honda Manufacturing of Alabama.
Honda’s four U.S. auto plants are supplied by engine manufacturing in Lincoln, Ala. and Anna, Ohio, and the production of automatic transmissions in Russells Point, Ohio, and Tallapoosa, Ga. These plants have produced 23.77 million automobile engines and 18.64 million transmissions in the United States. In 2013, nearly 95% of the Honda and Acura automobiles sold in the U.S. were produced in North America.
