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on Wednesday said it will increase the investment it plans for its Flat Rock Assembly near Detroit to add production capacity for its next-generation battery-
and next-generation
. The announcement that
will invest more than $850 million through 2023 in the plant, which currently builds the
and the
, also means the addition of a second shift and 900 incremental new jobs.
The announcement that it will use Flat Rock to build
, part of its planned $11.1 billion global investment in
, is a bit of a roller coaster ride for the plant. In late 2017, Ford
confirmed it had opted to transfer production
of its forthcoming performance-electric SUV from the plant to Cuautitlan, Mexico. And despite the announcement, that remains the plan for the
. After that vehicle is introduced in summer 2020, and
starting in 2023, Ford says Flat Rock will build vehicles that it didn’t name from the company’s next-generation flexible EV architecture, which we haven’t yet seen. The plant will also presumably build the
, one of
the company plans to roll out by 2022.
Lost in the hubbub was any mention of the fate of the beleaguered
luxury
. Also unclear is exactly what changed to make Ford confident that it can build EVs profitably on American soil. “We’ve taken a fresh look at the growth rates of electrified vehicles and know we need to protect additional production capacity given our accelerated plans for fully electric vehicles,” Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president of global operations, said in a statement.
Autoblog
has sought further comment from Ford.
All told, Ford said it’s investing $900 million in operations in southeast Michigan, which also include a new
manufacturing center. Ford had previously said it planned to convert Flat Rock into an AV “center of excellence,” with plans to upfit purpose-built
for commercial purposes, like ride-hailing or package deliveries, in 2021. It wasn’t immediately clear whether that’s still the case, or whether Ford has another location in mind, but it sounds like the latter is more likely. “This new plan combines our core strength in mass manufacturing with the ability and leanness we’ve shown with our modification centers for specialty manufacturing,” Hinrichs added.
In addition, Ford said it plans to build the next-generation North American
small commercial and passenger van at its plant in Hermosillo, Mexico — all in compliance with President Trump’s proposed USMCA trade agreement stipulations on U.S. and Canadian parts content — starting in 2021.
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