By Associated Press
Lincoln AL – Honda Motor Co. says it will start making V-6 Honda Accords on one of the two assembly lines at its Lincoln, Ala., factory by the middle of next year.
The plant now makes the Odyssey minivan and Pilot sport utility vehicle. Company spokesman Ed Miller said Honda will cut 8,000 vehicles from production at the Lincoln plant in November because sales have softened.
The conversion to Accords in Alabama frees more space for Honda's plant in Marysville, Ohio, to build more fuel-efficient four-cylinder Accords. The company also said it will increase production of four-cylinder engines at its factory in Anna, Ohio, and cut some six-cylinder engine production.
Honda already had announced that it will move production of the Ridgeline pickup from Canada to Alabama early next year.
As a result of the moves, Honda will make more four-cylinder Accords, the most popular model, in Ohio, and import fewer of them from its Saitama factory in Japan, Honda said in a statement. Through September, more than 80 percent of Accords sold in the U.S. were made in America, Honda said.
Honda will trim production at the Alabama plant by giving workers Monday through Wednesday off during the week of Thanksgiving, Miller said. It also will stop production on Nov. 7, 14 and 21, he said.
The Alabama factory complex has about 4,500 workers, Miller said. They will be paid for the shutdown days if they come to work to attend training sessions, he said.
Honda also plans to cut Odyssey and Pilot production by a total of 14,000 in February and March as the Alabama plant is being converted to Accords, Miller said.
So far this year, Accord sales are up 5 percent, while Odyssey sales are down 14 percent and Pilot sales are down 17 percent from the first nine months of 2007, according to Autodata Corp.