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OCTOBER 18, 2021
Building on our commitment to go all-in on electrification in Europe, we announced today our intention to invest up to £230 million at our Halewood vehicle transmission facility, in the UK, to transform it to build electric power units for our future all-electric passenger and commercial vehicles sold in Europe.
Power unit production in Halewood is expected to begin in mid-2024. Production capacity is likely to be around 250,000 units a year. The investment – which is subject to and includes U.K Government support – will help safeguard the Ford jobs at Halewood.
“This is an important step, marking Ford’s first in-house investment in all-electric vehicle component manufacturing in Europe. It strengthens further our ability to deliver 100 per cent of Ford passenger vehicles in Europe being all-electric and two-thirds of our commercial vehicle sales being all-electric or plug-in hybrid by 2030,” said Stuart Rowley, president, Ford of Europe.
“We also want to thank the U.K. Government for its support for this important investment at Halewood which reconfirms Ford’s continuing commitment to the U.K. and our position as a leading investor in this country’s auto industry and technological base.”
The power unit is the complete all-electric assembly that replaces the engine and transmission in an internal combustion engine vehicle.
The Ford Halewood transmission facility was chosen to supply the power units given its excellent record on quality, competitiveness and the strong skills base and commitment of the employees.
“We’re delighted the company has decided to make this important investment at Halewood, helping to safeguard Ford jobs at the site into the future. The decision recognises the experience, commitment and competitiveness of our world class workforce and is a great source of pride for all of us working at Halewood Transmission Plant and for the wider community,” said Kevin Pearson, Unite union convenor for Halewood.
Halewood currently builds transmissions for a number of our passenger and commercial vehicles and exports 100 per cent of its production. Before being taken back completely into Ford ownership earlier this year, Halewood had been part of Getrag Ford Transmissions, the transmission manufacturing joint venture co-owned by ourselves and Magna, for more than 20 years.
We are one of the U.K.’s largest exporters, exporting engines and transmissions from our facilities to more than 15 countries on six continents, with overseas sales generating around £2.5 billion annually.
Today’s news follows a number of major electrification announcements this year.
Spearheading our advance into an all-electric future is a new $1 billion investment to modernise our vehicle assembly facility in Cologne, Germany, one of our largest manufacturing centres in Europe and the home of Ford of Europe.
The investment will transform the existing vehicle assembly operations into the Ford Cologne Electrification Centre for the manufacture of electric vehicles, our first such facility in Europe. Our first European-built, volume all-electric passenger vehicle will roll off Cologne’s production line in 2023.
We also announced earlier this year that in addition to building the all-electric E-Transit from 2022, Ford Otosan – our joint venture in Turkey – will produce an all-electric version of the next-generation Transit Custom from 2023 at its manufacturing facility in Kocaeli, Turkey. A new light commercial vehicle being built by our vehicle assembly operations in Craiova, Romania, also will include an all-electric derivative from 2024.
Whether we realise it or not, the recent home delivery boom has made commercial vehicles more important than ever to our everyday lives. In 2021, we kept Europe’s businesses moving – and customers happy – with hard-working vehicles and services, putting us on top of Europe’s sales charts for Commercial Vehicles for the seventh year in a row. .
Introducing 7 new additions to the Ford Crossover and Transit range, helping pave the way to an all-electric future. Discover more about the new range here.
The all-electric Ford E-Transit's comprehensive suite of driver assistance systems has earned the commercial vehicle a Gold Award from independent vehicle safety authority Euro NCAP.
