Honda to end motorcycle production in the U.S.
Honda of America will stop making motorcycles at an Ohio plant in spring 2009 as part of a global strategy that will focus the company’s U.S. manufacturing efforts on the auto industry, Honda said in a press release Feb. 27.
The 450 Marysville (Ohio) Motorcycle Plant associates will be given options to remain with the company. There will be no layoffs.
Motorcycle manufacturing operations from the Marysville plant and the Hamamatsu factory in Japan will be consolidated in 2009 at a new motorcycle plant in Kumamoto, Japan.
The Marysville Motorcycle Plant opened in 1979 as the first Honda plant in the United States. Last year, it produced approximately 44,000 Gold Wing touring and VTX cruiser bikes. The plant formerly produced ATVs and transferred that responsibility to Honda of South Carolina Mfg. and the Kumamoto Factory in 2005.
