Honda Revamping Ontario Plants for Hybrid Car Production

Honda announces a C$1.4 billion ($1.09 billion) investment in retooling its plants in Alliston, ON, Canada, so they can make hybrid vehicles and engines.

“This represents an important milestone for Honda as we move forward in our ambitious vision to make battery-electric vehicles represent 100% of our North America vehicle sales by 2040,” says Jean Marc Leclerc, president and CEO of Honda Canada. He says the investment allows the company to leverage its existing experienced staff “who build some of Honda’s most popular and fuel-efficient products.”

Canada’s second-largest automotive manufacturer, Honda currently can build more than 400,000 vehicles and 190,000 engines annually at the Simcoe region plant north of Toronto, where 4,200 workers manufacture the Honda Civic and CR-V CUV. The retooled manufacturing center will be Honda’s North America lead plant for producing the '23 CR-V Hybrid, the automaker says.

The automaker will receive grants from the Ontario provincial and Canadian federal governments of C$131.6 million ($103 million) each to help fund the investment.

Vic Fedeli, Ontario minister of economic development, job creation and trade, says his government is “proud to support Honda of Canada’s major investment to retool its Alliston plant to manufacture the company’s next-generation models, including hybrid versions.”

His boss, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, says the investment will attract “more skilled workers to fill critical jobs and connecting resources and industries” in Ontario.

The subsidy is in line with the provincial government’s “Driving Prosperity – The Future of Ontario’s Automotive Sector” plan, which aims to move Ontario’s auto sector from a focus on combustion engines to building and exporting more hybrid and battery-electric vehicles, EV batteries and associated auto parts.

It also dovetails with Honda’s global electrification strategy, where the company seeks to ensure all its vehicles made in North America by 2040 are zero-emission models.

Leclerc says: “This investment not only ensures our product and manufacturing competitiveness within Ontario, Canada and abroad, but also significantly bolsters our ongoing efforts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions to help Canada attain its overall climate targets.”  

Adds David Adams, CEO and president-Global Automakers of Canada, "The quantum of the investment and type of investment – hybrid production – gives increasing gravitas to Ontario as an important jurisdiction for electrified-vehicle production.”