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Ford will add 6,200 factory jobs in Michigan, Missouri and Ohio as it prepares to build more electric vehicles and roll out two redesigned combustion-engine models.
The company says it will invest £2.9bn in the three states between now and 2026. Ford is also converting 3,000 temporary workers to full-time status with pay raises and benefits.
Ford’s plan is to be able to make 2 million electric vehicles per year globally by 2026.
A factory in Avon Lake, Ohio, near Cleveland, will be expanded so it can build an unidentified new electric commercial vehicle, with 1,800 new jobs. Ninety more jobs will be added in Lima and Sharonville, Ohio.
A plant in Claycomo, Missouri, near Kansas City, that makes big electric and combustion-engine Transit vans will get a third shift of 1,100 workers to handle increased demand.
In Michigan, Ford plans to add 2,000 jobs at three assembly plants, and another 1,200 at other facilities. It comes after Michigan politicians worked hard to lure electric vehicle assembly plants for General Motors after losing some Ford investment to southern states.
A factory in the Detroit suburb of Wayne that now builds the Ranger small pickup will see investment and jobs to make a new Ranger. A plant in Flat Rock south of Detroit will build a new version of the Mustang muscle car that it now builds. Ford’s Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn also will see investment and jobs so it can build more F-150 Lightning electric pickups to meet unexpectedly high demand. The company also will add 600 jobs at a new parts packaging facility to be built in Monroe, Michigan, and another 600 at several component plants in the state.
As soon as Ford opened reservations for the electric F-150, it began planning to expand the Dearborn plant that makes them, Kumar Galhotra, president of Ford Blue expressed. “The reservations were so much higher than the [production] capacity that we had put in,” Galhotra said. “This is the first time in my career that we were expanding the plant before the plant was built.”
Ford has begun switching the temporary workers to full-time, and it’s starting to hire the new workers for the plants. The company also pledged to spend £800m over five years to improve the work environment at its factories.
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