American Honda Invests $85-m for More MDXes

The greatest success that Acura has in the market is its MDX sport utility vehicle.

In 2014, there were five car lines on offer by Acura. The total number of cars sold were 57,297.

Compare that with the number of MDXes sold in 2014: 65,603.

So American Honda Motor Co. has announced that it is going to be supplementing production of the MDX.

It is presently made in a plant in Lincoln, Alabama. That plant also produces the Honda Pilot SUV and the Honda Odyssey minivan. Next year, the Honda Ridgeline pickup will go back into production there. (It also produces the 3.5-liter, 290-hp V6 engine for the MDX.)

The MDX will continue in Lincoln.

2014 MDX line-off in Lincoln

But Honda is investing $85-million in its East Liberty Plant in Ohio for additional MDX capacity.

This will be $85-million spent on things like welding equipment, conveyors, and tooling.

East Liberty is where the other big-selling Acura, the RDX SUV, is produced. (Last year 44,865 were sold, which is more than twice as many as the best-selling car in the lineup, the TLX, which was at 19,127, but to be fair, that’s not a full year in production, but you get the picture of how popular the Acura SUVs are.)

East Liberty also builds the Honda Crosstour and, more importantly, the Honda CR-V (of which 335,019 were sold last year, a number that’s just shy of the entire Acura division in 2014, 335,686.)

Speaking of the dual-sourcing strategy for the MDX, John Mendel, executive vp of American Honda, said, “This initiative will give us greater flexibility to meet growing customer demand for our Honda and Acura light truck models."