Honda Natural Gas Car is a Civic

Business First - Columbus Ohio
In dedicating its new Indiana plant this week, Honda Motor Co. Ltd. officials also announced the facility will begin producing a compressed natural gas-powered car next year.

The automaker said its Greensburg-based Honda Manufacturing of Indiana LLC arm, which began production in October, will turn out a natural-gas powered vehicle dubbed the Honda Civic GX next year. Honda didn’t disclose how many of the vehicles the plant will be producing or when production will start.

The company said the vehicle will be the world’s only compressed natural-gas powered passenger car.

At the Greensburg plant, about 1,000 employees working on one shift produce Honda Civic sedans with four-cylinder engines. Engines for the plant are made at Honda’s plant in Anna, northwest of Honda of America Manufacturing Inc.’s Marysville headquarters. The Anna plant serves as the North American hub of the company’s engine operations.

A second shift is expected to begin next year and eventually employ 2,000, allowing the plant to produce 200,000 vehicles a year. The Greensburg plant also will be taking on Civic production previously housed at Honda’s East Liberty plant early next year as part of a number of changes to the automaker’s production operations.