Associates at Honda’s East Liberty Auto Plant Wednesday celebrated the start of mass production of the all-new 2023 Honda CR-V.
The first Honda plant in North America to produce CR-V in 2006, ELP has produced nearly two million CR-Vs, helping fuel its standing as America’s best-selling crossover of the past quarter century.
ELP will begin production of the CR-V hybrid model in the coming weeks, as sales of the hybrid model will represent up to 50 percent of CR-V annual sales, a key step in Honda’s overall electrification strategy.
“Our entire team at the East Liberty Auto Plant has responded to every challenge to launch the all-new 2023 Honda CR-V and our associates are proud to deliver another CR-V for our customers,” said ELP Plant Lead Keith Strickland.
“CR-V has become a cornerstone of our success at ELP, and we’re confident the 2023 CR-V will continue to build on that legacy.”
The all-new 2023 Honda CR-V featuring a rugged yet sophisticated design, with two turbocharged trim levels, and four trim levels: EX and EX-L and the hybrid-electric powered Sport and Sport Touring trims.
The sixth generation CR-V went into production last month at Honda of Canada Manufacturing (HCM), followed by the Indiana Auto Plant on Oct. 18.
ELP associates worked closely with their counterparts at IAP and HCM to implement new technologies and processes for the 2023 Honda CR-V to deliver an innovative and consistently high-quality product for Honda customers in North America. ELP is employing a “perfect body” fixture as part of the effort to achieve optimal fit and finish using a data-driven process rather than trial and error.
ELP was the first Honda plant to employ this approach in 2017, and associates used this full-size mock-up of the CR-V body milled from a single piece of steel to help mature the fit of interior parts and components, as well as the tailgate.
Time is critical during the trial production stage and, in the past, the team would need to tear apart a trial unit to diagnose fit and finish issues. The perfect fixture enables the team to quickly apply countermeasures on the main assembly line.
A larger hood is a key element of the bold styling that fulfills Honda’s rugged direction for the brand’s light truck line-up. To deliver on this hood design in a mass production environment, Honda production engineers worked with the development team to increase rigidity by increasing the thickness of the steel sheet and adjusting the hood frame so that it could be handled through the stamping and weld departments. The result is a hood that delivers on the bold and sophisticated design direction.
The new CR-V is dramatically increasing the use of high-performance structural adhesive for increased body rigidity and is newly applying acoustic spray foam to the body structure for enhanced cabin quietness. The result is a new CR-V with increased dynamic rigidity and a quieter ride.
With the R&D team in Japan, the initial prototype build for CR-V would typically take place there, but with development taking place during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, travel restrictions were in place.
Since the North American production teams could not travel to Japan, they utilized video tools to document trial production activities in each plant and collaborate remotely, sharing learnings that led to changes to design and processes that now make it easier for Honda production associates to build CR-V to a high level of quality.