Megacasting to Start at Honda in Ohio

A series of six “gigacasting” presses have been installed by Honda of America at the Anna (Ohio) Engine Plant as a core manufacturing element of the EV Hub the automaker will launch later this year.

Announced in late 2022, the Ohio EV Hub includes retooling and new capabilities now projected at $1 billion for the engine plant and nearby Marysville, OH, assembly plant. Honda projects it have capacity for roughly 220,000 units across all vehicle types at Marysville once the Hub is complete.

Later this year Honda will start assembling the new Acura RSX EV at Marysville, which will be followed by electric vehicles based on prototypes Honda unveiled in January at the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show, the Honda 0 SUV and Honda 0 Saloon.

Honda's goal is for all its products to be zero-emissions vehicles by 2040.

"The Honda EV Hub provides Honda with the flexibility to produce ICE, hybrid-electric, and EV models on the same production lines so we can quickly respond to shifting customer needs and market conditions," stated Bob Schwyn, senior vice president, Honda Development & Manufacturing of America, LLC. "Beyond adding the capability to produce EVs, we completely reimagined our approach to manufacturing, transforming the Honda production environment with more human-friendly processes and sustainable manufacturing practices."

The Hub also will include a joint-venture EV battery plant starting up later this year, L-H Battery Co., where Honda and LG Energy Solution have committed to invest $3.5 billion and plant to produce approximately 40 GWh annually.

The EV batteries will be enclosed in high-pressure diecast aluminum cases that will be gigacast on the new, 6,000-ton machines – independently reported to be supplied by BühlerPrince – and will be the largest parts Honda has ever produced, it noted. Future Honda EVs are expected to incorporate gigacast front and rear vehicle structures, which is similar to Tesla’s breakthrough use of gigacastings in its electric vehicles.

Gigcasting, or megacasting, are generic terms of high-pressure diecasting operations developed to produce large-dimension parts that allow automakers to minimize subassembly for vehicle structures, saving production time and labor costs. Honda suggested that future gigacast parts could include body frames and internal-combustion or hybrid-electric engine components.

The Anna, Ohio, Engine Plant opened in 1985, and in addition to producing Honda engines it casts a range of engine components, and manufactures vehicle transmissions, camshafts, crankshafts, and CVT components. According to Honda, installing the 31-ft.-tall gigacasters required modifications to the plant, including placing pilons 80 feet below the concrete plant floor to provide a stable foundation.

The aluminum battery cases will be produced in two sizes, for midsize and large EVs – with one-half of the case common to each size. The completed battery cases will be packed with fuel cells produced at L-H Battery as power plants for Honda’s EVs.