Honda CR-V Hybrid now 'trickling out' of Ontario factory amid historic launch

Honda’s first Canadian-made hybrid model has begun rolling off the line at the automaker’s campus in Alliston, Ont., a milestone Honda Canada Inc. CEO Jean Marc Leclerc said is one step toward fully electric vehicle assembly at the three-plant complex north of Toronto.

During the official launch of the CR-V Hybrid Nov. 9, Leclerc told staff at Plant 2 that building hybrids is a “logical step in our strategy that will also prepare our manufacturing facilities and our associates for the eventual shift to EV production.”

Honda of Canada Mfg. (HCM) began retooling the Alliston plant late last year, and publicly announced the arrival of the CR-V Hybrid this March as the centrepiece of a $1.4-billion investment. The federal and provincial governments pledged matching contributions of $131.6 million to back the investment.

Retrofits at the plant ran through much of 2022, even as the assembly line continued to churn out the previous generation of the crossover SUV.

Among many other upgrades, Jeff Hansen, engineering project leader for the CR-V, said several segments of the assembly line needed to be strengthened to accommodate the weightier load of the hybrid model. Floorspace for a new sub-assembly line, where specially trained and equipped staff piece together the vehicle’s battery, electronics and cooling system, was also carved out.

Plant 2 is now tooled up to build up to 870 CR-Vs daily on two shifts. For the foreseeable future, Honda expects roughly half this production to be dedicated to the hybrid model, and half to the gasoline version.

The new models are now “trickling out" of the plant and beginning to reach dealers, Leclerc told Automotive News Canada.

'DEMAND GROWING'

“The demand is growing every day. … We just seem to be hitting the market at the heart of when more people want to buy hybrids.”

As the new-to-Canada CR-V Hybrid reaches consumers, the Japanese automaker is turning its attention to battery-electric vehicle production in the United States.

The company announced two major EV investments in Ohio Oct. 11, committing US$3.5 billion for a joint venture battery plant with LG Energy Solution, plus US$700 million for EV-oriented retooling projects at three of its Ohio plants.

Honda is also collaborating with General Motors to launch the fully electric Honda Prologue and the Acura ZDX on the U.S. automaker’s Ultium platform in 2024, prior to the introduction of its in-house EVs.

The spending south of the border does not mean Honda’s Ontario campus will be left out of the transition to EVs, Leclerc said.

“That does not preclude anything from happening here. … We’re well positioned because we’re training our associates [and] we’re retrofitting our manufacturing plants to evolve HCM to build EVs in the future.”

Leclerc said Ohio has long been a research and development hub for Honda, and it being made the company’s North American nerve centre for EVs did not come as a surprise. The automaker has not provided details about its new models based on its e:Architecture platform, but has said they will be built and sold in North America starting in 2026.

“It starts there, and then basically you spread the expertise to other plants that will start building EVs for [Honda], including HCM.”

Leclerc would not comment on whether fully electric models at its Alliston campus could also lead to local battery production.