Honda Adds Transmission Plant to Mexico Complex

Honda Motor Co. expects to begin making continuously variable transmissions in mid-2015 at a $470 million plant under construction in Celaya, Mexico.,

The factory will have initial annual production of 350,000 units. Honda says the facility eventually will expand to employ about 1,500 workers and make as many as 700,000 transmissions per year.

The Celaya plant will supply transmissions for an adjacent $800 million assembly plant which begins production of the 2015 Honda Fit subcompact car in 2014. Transmissions from the plant will also be exported to other Honda facilities.

Honda says the Celaya plant, along with transmission facilities in Ohio and Georgia, will increase its North American annual output of gearboxes from about 1.4 million units to more than 1.7 million units in 2016.