Ford says 2014 will be its busiest year in half a century, with plans including the launch of 23 global products, the opening of two plants in Asia Pacific and one in South America and the addition of 11,000 new jobs – 5,000 of which in the United States.
From the 23 launches, 16 will be in North America, including the Ford Mustang, Ford Transit Connect, Ford Transit and Lincoln MKC. Ford expects to have about three times the number of product launches next year in North America than in 2013.
Production of the all-new Transit will begin in second-quarter 2014 at Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant, where the carmaker is investing $1.1 billion to retool and expand the facility. More than 2,000 jobs will be created at the plant to support demand for Ford F-150 and production of the Transit family of commercial vehicles.
In all, Ford will create more than 5,000 new jobs in the United States next year, including 3,300 salaried positions. More than 80 percent of the new salaried jobs will be technical professionals who work in product development, manufacturing, quality and IT.
In the rest of the world, Ford will open three new manufacturing facilities: Changan Ford Assembly Plant No. 3 and Changan Transmission Plant in Chongqing, China, and Camaçari Engine Plant in Brazil. The new assembly plant in China will increase Ford’s production capacity by 300,000 units next year. Ford will hire more than 6,000 employees in Asia next year, mostly hourly employees.
The company also announced it will launch two new EcoBoost engines next year – a 2.3-liter unit that will debut in the Mustang and one that will soon be named. Ford plans to expand the offering of fuel efficiency technologies, with the Auto Start-Stop to be offered on more vehicles in North America. The carmaker wants to offer the system on 70 percent of its North America volume.
By Dan Mihalascu
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