Ford has added a second production base for the all-new 2015 Ford F-150 at the Kansas City Assembly Plant. The facility complements the Dearborn Truck Plant, which builds the F-150 in three shifts.
In addition to producing all F-150 models and cab configurations, Kansas City exclusively builds specialty F-150s with 8-foot (2.43-meter) cargo boxes and heavy payload packages for commercial fleet customers.
“The all-new F-150 has surpassed our expectations – setting new standards for full-size truck capability, technology and efficiency. With production starting at Kansas City Assembly, we are better poised to start meeting growing customer demand for our pickup,” said Joe Hinrichs, Ford president, The Americas.
To prepare the plant for the all-new 2015 F-150 and the Transit full-size van family, Ford invested $1.1 billion in retooling and expanding the facility. Upgrades include an all-new body shop with more than 500 new robots, an updated paint shop with dirt detection technology and increased robotic paint automation, a rough-road test course to replicate real-life road conditions and more.
Along with these upgrades, 900 new jobs were created at Kansas City Assembly Plant. Combined, the Dearborn and Kansas City facilities will be able to build more than 700,000 Ford F-150 pickups a year.
The all-new F-150 has had a strong commercial start. In January, the F-Series had its strongest sales month since 2004, which was Ford’s best sales year ever for F-150. Additionally, retail sales rose 7 percent in February.
Thanks to these results, the F-Series is one of Ford’s fastest-selling vehicles, spending an average of just 18 days on dealer lots, well below the light-duty full-size pickup truck average of 105 days.
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