Honda, LGES holds groundbreaking ceremony for new EV battery plant in southeast Ohio

JEFFERSONVILLE — Honda said breaking ground on its new electric vehicle battery plant in Fayette County means more than 2,000 jobs headed to the Miami Valley.

Last October, Honda announces it will be investing $4.2 billion into EV production in Ohio, including a new EV battery plant.

Officials announced a $700 million investment at three existing plants, including its Anna Engine Plant in Shelby County, East Liberty Auto Plant in Logan County, and Marysville Auto Plant in Union County.

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Even before Honda’s official groundbreaking, the company’s construction crews have already been moving ground, preparing for the two-year construction cycle to build the new sprawling electric battery plant.

Thirty elected leaders and company executives staged a ceremonial groundbreaking — the end of their work to make a deal, the beginning of the work to put a plant in place.

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“Just to give you guys some sense of the scale of the plant we are building, it can fit 78 football fields,” Robert Lee said.

Lee is the chief executive officer of the new joint venture company between Honda and LG Electrical Systems.

The Global CEO of Honda also attended the opening.

“We are reinvesting in Ohio, to create a new EV hub, that will enable us to build tomorrow together,” Toshihiro Mibe said.

LG Electric Services and Honda will produce lithium-ion batteries here for electric vehicles.

Honda leaders want to be carbon natural by 2050.

DeWine wants to see 2,200 more Ohioans with jobs.

“Certainly from Dayton and the Miami Valley, Columbus and central Ohio, Cincinnati and counties from southwest Ohio,” DeWine said.

He said Fayette and Greene County will remain strong agricultural strongholds but he also wants this area and Ohio to be home of the jobs of the future as well as high-tech manufacturing.

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