Ford accelerates EV manufacturing of F-150, Mustang in U.S. and Mexico
Firm investing $11.5B to electrify lineup with eye on top-sellers
Ford Motor Co. is accelerating its shift to electric-vehicle manufacturing, boosting the number of workers who will make an electric version of its F-150 pickup and adding a plug-in model at a Mexican factory building battery-powered Mustangs.
The automaker also will manufacture a battery-powered Transit van at its facility near Kansas City, Mo., investing $100 million (U.S.) there and adding 150 jobs, it said in a statement. The financial commitment was previously disclosed in a contract with the United Auto Workers.
Ford’s moves come a day after General Motors Co. announced plans to hire 3,000 engineers, designers and informationtechnology specialists to help develop electric cars and trucks. The auto industry is speeding its EV plans as consumers em
brace battery-powered models by Tesla Inc. and regulators around the world impose stringent mandates for zero-emission vehicles. President-elect Joe Biden plans an aggressive clean-energy program, including 500,000 charging stations for electric cars nationwide.
Ford is investing $11.5 billion to electrify its lineup, focusing on its top-selling trucks, sportutility vehicles and sports cars.
With the electric F-150 still more than a year from hitting the market, the automaker is
raising output targets at a factory still under construction in Dearborn, Michigan. Ford now plans to hire an extra 200 workers at the plant, bringing the total of new jobs to 500.
“The demand was higher than what we had planned for,” Kumar Galhotra, Ford’s president of the Americas and international markets, said in an interview. “So we immediately started working on how to get substantially more capacity from that plant and that requires 200 more people.”