Dive Brief:
- Ford Motor Co. confirmed a $1 billion investment in its Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, bringing a state-of-the-art paint shop that Ford says “will further enhance the plant’s long-term competitiveness.”
- The plant currently produces F-Series Super Duty pickups and Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs and is one of two large assembly plants in the Louisville region. As the company’s largest and highest-revenue U.S. manufacturing plant, it “remains a cornerstone of Ford’s manufacturing footprint,” said the automaker in a release.
- The new commitment adds to Kentucky investments of about $2 billion in its Louisville Assembly Plant for the Ford Fathom electric truck, and $2 billion to ready its former BlueOval SK joint venture battery plant to make Ford Energy battery energy storage systems. “These investments demonstrate our confidence in Kentucky’s workforce, our commitment to American manufacturing, and our belief that the future of mobility and energy will be built right here in the United States,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said.
Dive Insight:
Ford did not detail how the new paint shop will change the number of employees at Kentucky Truck Plant, but it sums that it has 11,500 employees at the factory, with approximately 2,200 new jobs set for its Louisville Assembly Plant. Separately, at least another 2,100 jobs are promised at the Ford Energy battery facility about an hour south in Glendale, Kentucky.
Citing a 2020 study from Boston Consulting Group, Ford claims to contribute $11.7 billion annually to Kentucky’s GDP, leading to the employment of nearly 120,000 people in the state including suppliers and dealers. Ford says that its total economic impact in Kentucky exceeds $33 billion.
“Ford’s announcement today is a vote of confidence in our city and shows the world that Louisville is an incredible place to grow a business,” said Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg. “We're proud to be Ford's partner as they build the future of American manufacturing in Louisville.”
The investment is a move that will further modernize “one of Ford’s most important manufacturing operations,” according to the automaker. Ford says that the upgraded technology in the new paint shop will improve paint quality, “supporting continued production excellence with improved efficiency and advanced environmental sustainability.”
It may need that efficiency, as one of the other key facilities it’s chosen to build Super Duty pickups — its Oakville Assembly Complex in Canada — could be caught in a tariff war.
Meanwhile, Ford describes the $2 billion overhaul of the Louisville Assembly Plant facility that will build the Fathom electric truck as “one of the most significant transformations in its history.”
Ford upgraded the paint shop at Louisville Assembly Plant, in 2012, allowing a fast 3-wet process that saved energy and was better for the environment. Then, it invested $600 million in a series of other upgrades to modernize the plant to make it more flexible.
The automaker’s announcement comes just two days after Farley’s response to a Sept. 3 letter he received from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, stating the agency was “deeply alarmed” by the company’s reliance on technology from China and its impact on American jobs. The letter suggested a joint-venture framework that had not been proposed, and it criticized Ford’s timeline to shift Lincoln Nautilus production from China to the U.S.
