Honda Manufacturing of Alabama (HMA) today started writing the latest chapter in what has been a 15-year success story as the automaker began mass producing the revamped 2016 Honda Pilot SUV.

2016 Honda Pilot from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.

“Today we celebrate the incredible dedication of our Alabama team to delivering an outstanding new Pilot that will set the course for others to follow,” said Jeff Tomko, president of HMA. “I want to congratulate our associates for their unqualified commitment to building a new Pilot of the highest quality that exceeds the expectations of our customers.”

When an automaker like Honda makes a major model change, the benefits are significant for the entire state, according to Bill Taylor, president of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama.

“A redesign reinvigorates customers. That means production volume increases and that leads to job growth,” Taylor said. “Sustainability figures into it, too.”

Taylor said not only will demand for a new version of the Pilot drive job growth, but a hidden benefit is the boost in education and abilities the entire workforce at the Honda plant and its suppliers gains as a result of a model change.

“A new model facilitates education and challenges the workforce,” he said. “We continue to build on the skill sets of our workforce and enhance those skills. It’s a great thing for us as a state to keep challenging workers and have them rise to the challenge.”

Taylor knows what he’s talking about. Before leading EDPA, he led the Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance.

More than 1,500 associates at the HMA plant celebrated the start of mass production of the new Pilot, slated to go on sale next month at Honda dealerships nationwide. HMA is the exclusive manufacturer of the family-friendly Honda Pilot and its advanced direct-injected i-VTEC V-6 engine.

The Pilot is produced in Alabama alongside the Honda Odyssey, which is leading all other minivans in sales to individual American retail car buyers in 2015. Honda’s Alabama-built light-truck lineup will be further strengthened when HMA begins production of an all-new Honda Ridgeline pickup early next year.

“The re-engineered 2016 Pilot continues the tradition of the highly advanced sport utility that Honda began making in Alabama in 2004,” said Greg Canfield, secretary of the Alabama Department of Commerce. “Since then, the skilled workforce at the plant in Lincoln has assembled more than 1.2 million Pilots and the V-6 engines that power them. Those production numbers will continue to grow with the next-generation Pilot.”

Designed, developed and manufactured in America, the all-new 2016 Honda Pilot SUV is full of improvements over the previous model. In addition to more dynamic styling, the cabin is more spacious, the powertrain is more powerful and efficient, and there are more advanced technology and premium features than before.

All three generations of the Honda Pilot have been designed and developed in America by Honda R&D Americas Inc. at its Los Angeles design studio and Raymond, Ohio R&D center.

“Our U.S.-based development team lives with the midsize family SUV every day and we have applied our deep understanding into the development of this best-ever, third-generation Pilot,” said Marc Ernst, chief engineer at Honda R&D Americas in Raymond and development leader for the new Pilot. “We advanced Pilot’s dual-purpose character by increasing both family utility and personal sophistication to meet the needs of the driver and passengers in every dimension of their life.”

The new Pilot is already getting the attention of critics.

“Almost guaranteed to provide years of reliable, comfortable service to legions of buyers who are (for whatever reason) allergic to minivans, the 2016 Pilot should be a smash hit,” Autoweek wrote in its review this week.

“In all, the Pilot makes a fine minivan substitute for when that second kid comes along. And it looks better doing it — at least until you put those magnets and stickers on the back,” Car and Driver concluded.