Honda's Anna Engine Plant Celebrates 40-Year Milestone

Miami Herald

2 days ago

Honda's Anna Engine Plant (AEP) celebrated 40 years of building engines and components for both foreign and domestic production on July 22nd. Located a stone's throw from the Village of Anna, the facility has expanded from a mere 200,000 square feet with 94 employees in 1985 to a massive 2.8 million square-foot campus that employs 2,900 people. Since its founding, AEP has built more than 32.5 million engines, as well as miscellaneous powertrain components. Going forward, AEP will play a major role in the automaker's electrified efforts by producing combustion engines, hybrid powertrains, and EV components on the same lines.
AEP officially began operating in 1985, with motorcycle engines christening the new production facility. The engine plant expanded to automotive engine production the following year, starting with the Honda Civic's four-cylinder engine. Since then, the facility has produced more than 32.5 million engines, as well as various components for engines and transmissions.
The 2.8 million square-foot production facility is the result of $2.9 billion in investments over the past forty years. In that time, AEP has produced several notable engines, including the 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine that's under the hood of the hybrid Civic, Accord, and CR-V. The engine plant also produces the turbocharged four-cylinder and V6 engines that power the Acura Integra, TLX, and MDX Type S models.
AEP even produces the Honda Civic Type R's 315-horsepower 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine. From there, the engine is exported to Japan, where the hot hatch is assembled. The facility is also responsible for the 500-horsepower 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 engine that powered the second-gen Acura NSX.
Honda already has a couple of EVs in its lineup, namely the Prologue and Acura ZDX, but the Japanese automaker is gearing up for expansion. In total, the company plans to invest $1 billion to retool its automotive production facilities, including the Marysville Auto Plant, East Liberty Auto Plant, and AEP, as part of the new Honda EV Hub. Once retooling is completed, AEP will add megacasting, friction stir welding, and Minimum Quantity Lubrication machining to its long list of production processes. The engine plant will play a vital role in the Honda EV Hub by producing the battery case used in Honda and Acura EVs.
Once EV production begins, the battery case created at AEP will be shipped off to the Marysville Auto Plant. There, it will be combined with the battery module to create the EV battery packs that power vehicles assembled at the Marysville and East Liberty Auto Plants. Notably, the production facilities will continue to produce traditional internal combustion engines and hybrid models alongside their EV counterparts.
Honda is doing more than simply equipping their existing production facilities for EV production, though. The company is aiming to rethink the production process entirely, with a focus on worker-friendly practices, environmental responsibility, and efficiency. Once completed, the Honda EV Hub will produce the Acura RSX EV and other models from the Honda 0 Series that debuted at CES 2025.
"We're not just retooling for electric vehicles," Tim Stroh, Senior Program Manager of Production Engineering and Battery Case Project Leader at AEP, told Peak of Ohio. "We are fundamentally rethinking how we approach production. The new layout is designed to be more human-friendly, with updated workspaces and processes that improve safety and efficiency. The addition of electric vehicle production capabilities requires not only new machinery but also a re-imagining of how we work together on the assembly line."
While the Anna Engine Plant is celebrating 40 years, it wasn't the automaker's first manufacturing facility in Ohio. Honda's Marysville Auto Plant started out building motorcycles in 1979 before moving to automobile production in 1982. Today, Honda has five manufacturing facilities and is the largest employer in Ohio, with more than 12,000 employees on record.
In addition to its five existing facilities, Honda is also establishing a new EV Hub to support the automaker's electrified efforts. Honda also plans to invest another $3.5 billion in a new EV battery plant in Fayette County, Ohio, as part of its joint venture with LG Energy Solution.
"Everything that Honda has accomplished at the Anna Engine Plant during the past 40 years has been achieved through the skills and commitment of our associates, and this will continue as we pursue an expanded form of flexible manufacturing in the future," said Michael Tinch, AEP plant lead. "As we maximize production of ICE and hybrid models, even while preparing for the future of EV production, I know our associates will continue to produce high-quality products that meet the needs of our customers."
As an Anna local, I'm grateful to have the Honda engine plant in our area. It's definitely a unique part of the view from my front porch. On a more serious note, their involvement in the community, schools, and events can't be understated. With the automaker investing further into the plant's future, electrified or otherwise, I have little doubt that it will change anytime soon.
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