TOKYO, July 9 (Kyodo) — Honda Motor Co. said Tuesday it started operating a new automobile factory in Yorii, Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, its first new assembly plant in Japan in 23 years.
The factory, capable of turning out 250,000 compact vehicles a year with a workforce of 2,000, will shortly start manufacturing the Fit compact car, a fully restyled model of which Honda will begin selling in September, it said.
Honda announced in 2006 that the Yorii plant would begin operating in 2010, but subsequently was forced to freeze the plan by the global economic downturn in 2008. It revived the plan in July 2010.
Honda has not disclosed the amount it invested in the new factory, which utilizes a range of state-of-the-art manufacturing technologies.