Honda to Boost Capacity 25% at Indiana Factory

Honda Motor Co. says it will spend $40 million at its assembly plant in Greensburg, Ind. to increase capacity by 50,000 units to 250,000 vehicles per year.

The facility, which currently makes the Honda Civic compact car, will become Honda's sole global source of Civic hybrids when production begins there early next year. The Indiana factory started building the Acura ILX and ILX hybrid compact luxury sedan in April.

Honda says it expects to create about 300 new jobs at the plant by year-end. The company added a second shift and hired about 1,000 workers in Greensburg last autumn.

The expansion is part of Honda's broader plan to boost its annual capacity in North American to 1.92 million vehicles by 2014 from 1.63 million units now. The company is scrambling to meet strong local demand and buffer itself from the negative impact of the strong yen.

Honda says its seven assembly plants in the region have been operating at or above their full straight-time capacity since late 2011. The company has already announced plans to hike capacity at facilities in Alabama, Ohio and Mexico.