Hino has announced a massive investment plan to strengthen its U.S. operations with the introduction of a new truck line and new manufacturing facilities.
At a press conference this week, Hino announced its plan to build a new truck assembly plant in Mineral Wells, West Virginia, close to its current plant.
The new plant, planned to be operational in early 2019, will also house cab assembly, an operation currently handled in Japan.
“The new plant, which is four times the size of our current plant, will allow us to combine several assembly operations under one roof which will provide significant efficiency gains” said Hino Motors Manufacturing U.S.A. President, Takashi Ono.
The total investment to the new plant will be approximately $US100 million, creating about 250 new jobs in early 2020 over a two-shift operation.
In addition to producing Hino’s current line up of conventional trucks, the new truck assembly plant in West Virginia will produce a new line of heavier Class 7 and 8 trucks which Hino plans to introduce in 2019.
The truck will be powered by Hino’s latest A09, 9-litre engine. Launched in the Hino 500 here in Australia earlier this year, the Hino A09 engine will have a horsepower range from 300-360 HP.
Hino is planning a public reveal of the new truck at next years’ NTEA Work Truck Show in the USA.
“These are truly exciting times for Hino in the U.S. Our growth and customer acceptance in the Class 4-7 market are enabling us to introduce wider variety of products” stated Yoshinori Noguchi, CEO of Hino North America.
As part of Hino’s growth plan, Hino broke ground last month on a new state of the art corporate office in Novi, Michigan. Hino is consolidating all operations in its new corporate headquarters, including sales, marketing, service, engineering, purchasing and manufacturing.
Hino’s Insight Diagnostic Center, which monitors vehicle performance and uptime for all Hino trucks equipped with Insight, will also operate out of the Novi headquarters. During the ground breaking ceremony, Noguchi said, “Today’s ground breaking not only signifies Hino’s growth in the U.S., but also a new beginning for our operations in the U.S. within our new U.S. headquarters. In that spirit, we are excited to break ground on our new office and collectively work together as one Hino U.S. team.” Investment in the new state of the art corporate office, which consolidates all the operations, totals $20 million.
