DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday it will invest $100 million in its Kansas City Assembly Plant to build the new E-Transit van, which the company will reveal later this week.
This is part of a more than $3.2 billion investment in Ford's North American manufacturing facilities to produce a series of new electric vehicles for commercial and retail customers.
"We're taking our most iconic vehicles and using fully electric technology to deliver even more performance, productivity and capability for customers," said Kumar Galhotra, president of Ford's Americas and International Markets Group. "We are building out the North American manufacturing footprint to support this growth. This is just the first chapter with more new electric vehicles and more investment to come."
This investment will add about 150 full-time jobs at Kansas City Assembly plant, Ford said.
Investing in electric
Electric vehicles are critical if the company is to meet the requirements of the Paris Accord and achieve carbon neutrality globally by 2050, the company said.
The Kansas City and Dearborn plants, along with Ford's assembly plants in Oakville, Ontario, and Cuautitlan, Mexico, will support the first phase of Ford's growing North American electric vehicle plans, the automaker said.
Ford will reveal the E-Transit Thursday and the vehicle will come to market in 2022. It is part of Ford's $11.5 billion-plus investment in electric cars through 2022. The Mustang Mach-E starts reaching customers next month. In September, Ford said it will be bringing an all-electric F-150 pickup to market in 2022.
Job retention
Ford is investing approximately $150 million in Van Dyke Transmission Plant in Sterling Heights. It will assemble e-motors and e-transaxles for electric vehicles, including the all-electric F-150. This will retain 225 jobs, Ford said.
Ford said it is also planning to increase production for the fully electric F-150 at the Rouge Plant in Dearborn, which will add 200 permanent jobs in addition to a previously announced 300 jobs and part of a $700 million investment in building the all-new F-150 and all-electric F-150
