Honda Could Hit Full Capacity in North America by 2006

Honda Motor Co. expects its plants in the U.S., Canada and Mexico to reach full production capacity by about 2006, when the company starts building three more light trucks.

Honda, Japan’s third-largest carmaker, said this week that it was shifting production of CR-V sport utility vehicles for the U.S. to Ohio from Britain. The company has also said it would build the new Ridgeline pickup in Ontario, Canada, beginning next year, and a new Acura luxury-brand SUV in Ohio in 2006.

The three models will fill the rest of Honda’s expected capacity in North America to make 1.4 million autos annually, company spokesman Yuzuru Matsuno said. Tokyo-based Honda says it doesn’t plan to add a sixth factory in North America, its biggest sales region.

Asia’s largest carmakers -- Honda, Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Co. and Hyundai Motor Co. -- are adding or expanding factories in North America to lift sales and limit the effect of changing currency values on profit. Asian automakers claimed a record 34.5% of U.S. light-vehicle sales through November, up from 32.8% a year earlier.

Honda was the first Asian automaker to produce cars in the U.S., in 1982. It hasn’t decided which of two Ohio plants will build CR-Vs and the new Acura model, which may be called the RD-X. The company’s Marysville and East Liberty plants will each receive one of the models, said Ed Miller, a spokesman for Honda’s North American manufacturing unit in Marysville. The neighboring mid-Ohio factories can make as many as 680,000 autos a year.

In Lincoln, Ala., Honda plans to reach full production of 300,000 vehicles annually next year. The plant builds Odyssey minivans and Pilot SUVs.

The company’s U.S. operations are based in Torrance.