New products, challenges on the horizon for Honda’s Alabama plant

The coming year will be a busy one for Honda’s Alabama auto manufacturing operations.

First up, the company will launch a redesign of the Ridgeline pickup, which will debut at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January and enter mass production at the Talladega County plant in early 2016.

Later in the year, another redesign is expected. This time it’s the Odyssey minivan, the flagship product of Honda’s Alabama assembly lines.

And through it all, the plant will be celebrating 15 years of production in the state. Its first locally-built Odyssey rolled off the line in November 2001.

Officials for the automaker talked about the future on Tuesday, as they joined state economic development leaders in Birmingham to celebrate past successes.

Read more: New products, challenges on the horizon for Honda’s Alabama plant