The Passport, which was unveiled last month at the Los Angeles Auto Show, will be positioned between the compact CR-V and the three-row Pilot in Honda’s SUV lineup. The new SUV revives the nameplate of an SUV Honda sold in the 1990s and early 2000s.

It will go on sale early next year.

EXPANDING LINEUP

“Time and again, Honda’s global leadership has entrusted key products to their Alabama workforce.”

At the Alabama plant, the Passport joins a lineup that includes Honda’s Odyssey minivan, Pilot SUV and Ridgeline pickup. The facility has the capacity to produce more than 340,000 vehicles and V6 engines each year, and employees have built more than 4.7 million vehicles and engines since it opened in 2001.

Honda Alabama has been participating in the development of the Passport for a little more than two years, Oatridge said.

The process included additional training for about 2,000 workers at the factory’s Line 2. The Passport is based on Honda’s Global Light Truck Platform and shares much of its underlying structure with the Pilot and Ridgeline, including a highly rigid unibody construction.

“Because of our flexible manufacturing systems, it doesn’t require a lot of new tooling but it does require retraining,” he said.

Greg Canfield, secretary of the Alabama Department of Commerce, said the all-new Passport is yet another example of the importance of Honda’s Talladega County operations on the international automotive industry stage.

“Time and again, Honda’s global leadership has entrusted key products to their Alabama workforce, and we congratulate all of them for another impressive achievement,” he said.

“Across Alabama’s auto industry, we continue to see new jobs, new investments and new responsibilities to build high-quality, in-demand products for customers around the world, and our workers are meeting and exceeding those challenges.”

‘POSITIVE RESPONSE’

Oatridge and other Honda officials also credited the skill, dedication and teamwork of employees for making the new Passport a reality, and it is already turning heads in the market.

“The positive response to Passport really signals Honda is poised to compete in this segment,” said Lara Harrington, chief engineer and Passport development leader.

“I think we are hitting the market at just the right time for this vehicle. The Honda Passport is designed to bring a more personal, rugged and off-road SUV to our award-winning light truck lineup, and we are all excited to see where this new product will take us.”