Honda Plans EV Powersports Production In North America

As Honda gears up to transform its company into EV powersports production, we now see that some of that production is going to happen in North America—and maybe, maybe, Canada will even see some of that action.

Earlier this week, officials from Honda’s U.S. subsidiary were on-hand for a 40th-anniversary party at Big Red’s factory in North Carolina. They build ATVs at that plant; the South Carolina factory used to build ATVs, but shipped that production the next state over so they could focus on side-by-sides.

Who cares, it’s not motorcycles—right? But at that cake-and-a-break routine, one of Honda’s American-market bigwigs dropped the following piece of juicy information:

“Our decision to make North Carolina the home for Honda ATVs today and our electrified powersports and power equipment products of tomorrow is based on the 40-year commitment of Honda associates in the Tar Heel State to build quality Honda products for our customers.”

Wait, what?

If you’ve been paying attention, you shouldn’t be surprised. In 2022 and 2023, Honda had big meetings with the corporate execs from Japan, telling us all the company would be gearing up to make electric motorcycles over the next decade, investing billions into the scheme. They’ve followed that up with electric scooters in overseas markets (mostly Asia, now starting into Europe). And last fall, Honda also debuted an electric motocross bike on the Japanese race circuit; now, it’s running the FIM’s eXplorer race series.

None of this means that Honda will build an electric motorcycle in the North Carolina plant. Maybe they will only make ATVs there until the end of time. However, Honda has certainly built a lot of motorcycles in the States in the past (in its Ohio facility), and part of its scheme to electrify its lineup is a plan to trickle-down manufacturing to more overseas plants, instead of building everything in Asia. It wouldn’t be silly to expect an electric dirt bike made in the U.S., at some point.

The Canadian connection

What about us, in Canada? It seems unlikely to expect a dirt bike factory here. However, note that earlier this year, Honda announced plans for an EV battery factory in Ontario. You can read the whole thing here, but the important part is this: The Ontario plan seems destined to build batteries for American-made machines. In fact, Ohio, where the Gold Wing was built for years, was specifically named. And note that the only reason they stopped making bikes in Ohio was that they ran out of capacity to do so—they didn’t have enough workers.

So. In 10-15 years, you may be able to ride an electric motorcycle that was at least partially manufactured in Canada, with Big Red’s name on the gas tank battery box.

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