JAMES HANNAH
Associated Press

There is more at stake for Ohio than just 1,500 high-paying jobs in the fight for where Honda Motor Co. will build its new, $400 million auto-assembly plant.

Success means boosting Ohio’s status as a major player in the auto industry while tightening its grip as the second-leading producer of cars and light trucks in the nation.

“The economic value of those jobs is so high, it obviously would be a real plum,” said David Cole, president of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Honda announced plans this month to build the plant as part of a $1.18 billion global expansion. The facility will boost the Japanese automaker’s North American production capacity from 1.4 million to 1.6 million vehicles a year for a company whose profit more than doubled to a record $1.9 billion in the first quarter.

Honda has said it plans to build the plant in the Midwest by 2008, but will not identify potential sites.

Ohio officials are promoting sites near Van Wert, about 75 miles southwest of Toledo, and another one near Octa, about 40 miles southwest of Columbus, as possible locations for the plant. Indiana officials have pinpointed sites in the southeast part of the state between Indianapolis and Cincinnati. Michigan economic development officials say they also have presented a proposal to Honda.

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New research from Honda shows that 35,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions could be avoided if just 1 in 5 drivers switched to more environmentally-friendly cars.

The figures reveal that a switch by 20 percent of motorists in the capital would save the equivalent weight of 4 Big Ben towers in pollution. To push the message home, Honda has launched a “No Choke” campaign to highlight the need for greener cars in London - cars like its own Civic Hybrid, launched earlier this year.

Read the full story @ AutoExpress.co.uk!