Honda Canada to spend $1.4B to retool Ontario factories for hybrid vehicles

Honda Canada is planning a $1.4-billion retooling of its Alliston, Ont., operations to produce hybrid vehicles as part of its plan to shift towards of a fully electric product line by 2040.

The automaker is set to announce details at a news conference in Alliston on Wednesday.

The federal and Ontario governments each will kick in $131.6 million to the project.

In January, Honda Canada CEO Jean Marc Leclerc said the automaker would start building the hybrid version of the CR-V at its Alliston campus this summer. The automaker confirmed that late Tuesday.

The company had been retooling a portion of Plant 2 at the four million square-foot (370,000 square-metre) assembly site to make way for production midway through the year.

The first vehicles assembled will be for the 2023 model year.

Honda of Canada Mfg. has built the gasoline version of the CR-V crossover in Alliston since 2012. At neighbouring Plant 1 it assembles the Honda Civic sedan, and it builds four-cylinder engines for the two models at its on-site engine plant. The three facilities collectively employ about 4,200 workers.

Leclerc said at the time that adding hybrid production is in response to demand the company expects to increase “pretty drastically” over the next few years. Honda has also built the CR-V Hybrid in Greensburg, Ind. since 2019.

The hybrid shift in Alliston adds the campus to a growing list of Ontario plants with — or soon to have — electrified products. Toyota has been building the RAV4 hybrid in Cambridge, Ont. since 2019, and General Motors is currently retooling its CAMI Assembly Plant in Ingersoll, Ont. to make way for electric commercial van production this spring. Both Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis have also committed to electric or hybrid models at plants in Oakville and Windsor, Ont.

The timeline for the start of mass production of CR-V hybrids in Alliston is set for this summer, but a final date has not been set.

Last April, Honda Global CEO Toshihiro Mibe said the automaker accelerate electrification and application of connected safety technologies toward the realization of “carbon neutrality” and “zero traffic collision fatalities.”

Honda is targeting sales of 100 per cent zero emission electrified vehicles in North America by 2040.