TOKYO—Honda Motor Co. is building a new $550 million automobile assembly plant close to Greensburg, IN, about 50 miles southeast of Indianapolis. The plant, which would employ about 2,000 people, would start production in late 2008, with a yearly production capacity of 200,000 vehicles.

The new plant would be Honda's sixth auto plant and 14th main manufacturing facility in North America. It would help boost Honda's total North American auto production capacity from 1.4 million units to more than 1.6 million units yearly. In all, Honda employs more than 37,000 people in North American, with a whole capital investment of approximately $9 billion.

"(The) state of Indiana has…an exceptional society of people, outstanding transportation systems and the necessary infrastructure to support industry," says Koichi Kondo, president of American Honda Motor Co. "It is an ideal location in the Midwest, both for our network of parts suppliers and as a central location for all of our customers crossways the country."