DETROIT — Honda is adding production of the hot-selling CR-V crossover in Marysville, Ohio, this summer to keep up with demand.
Marysville will be the fourth North American CR-V production site, joining East Liberty, Ohio; Greensburg, Ind.; and Alliston, Ontario.
The CR-V, Honda's top seller, set an annual sales record last year of 377,895 vehicles, up 5.8 percent.
Marysville won't have a problem adding the CR-V because the crossover uses the same Inner Frame construction method used for the Accord, which already is built at the plant.
"To add CR-V, we increased production at the Marysville auto plant during the launch of the all-new Accord from 1,700 to approximately 1,900 units per day," Toshiaki Mikoshiba, CEO of American Honda Motor Co., said at the Detroit auto show. "So we should have sufficient volume to build Accord as well as the Acura TLX and ILX even after adding the CR-V. "
One reason for Honda's success, he said, has been the company's ongoing effort to use its flexible production capabilities to fortify light-truck production in North America.
Mikoshiba pointed to Acura MDX production, for instance, which was transferred from Lincoln, Ala., to East Liberty in October, freeing up capacity to build more Honda Pilots. With the increased supply, he said, Pilot sales rose 45 percent in the fourth quarter. The brand also added HR-V production to its Guadalajara plant in Mexico, complementing production at its newer plant in Celaya, Mexico.
Honda's truck sales reached 734,264 in 2017, up 4.2 percent from the previous year.
