Ford Motor Co. recently announced that it will be investing $1.2 billion in three Michigan manufacturing facilities to strengthen its leadership in trucks and SUVs and support the company's expansion to an auto and mobility company.
Ford is investing $850 million in the Michigan Assembly Plant to retool the plant to build the new Ford Ranger and Ford Bronco. Employees at the Michigan Assembly Plant will begin building the Ranger at the end of 2018 and the Bronco in 2020.
The company also plans to create or retain 130 jobs and invest $150 million to expand capacity for engine components for several vehicles at the Romeo Engine Plant in Michigan.
In addition, Ford is investing $200 million for an advanced data center to support the company's expansion to an auto and a mobility company. It is the second of two new data centers Ford is building in Michigan, as the company expects its data usage to increase 1,000 percent, driven by manufacturing and business needs and new mobility services, such as more connected, autonomous and electrified vehicles.
The second new data center will be located at Ford's Flat Rock Assembly Plant, where the company is investing $700 million and adding 700 direct new jobs to create a factory capable of producing high-tech electrified and autonomous vehicles.
"At Ford, we are investing aggressively in building on our strengths today – including trucks, vans, commercial vehicles, performance vehicles and SUVs – while at the same time growing our leadership in electrification, autonomy and mobility services," said Joe Hinrichs, Ford's president of the Americas. "As America's top producer of automobiles, we are proud to be going even further in our commitment to invest in manufacturing here at home."
The company's investments are supported by its partnership with the United Automobile Workers (UAW), as well as with federal, state, county and local governments.
"UAW-Ford is proud of the total investments in three of our southeast Michigan assembly and engine plants, which will lead to stronger job security for our members and continued support for the surrounding communities," said UAW-Ford vice president Jimmy Settles.
In the past three months, Ford has announced $1.9 billion in new investments in Michigan. During the past five years, Ford has invested $12 billion in its U.S. plants and created a total of nearly 28,000 U.S. jobs.
The work to transform the Michigan Assembly Plant begins next May. Following the same pattern used during vehicle changeover at the Dearborn Truck Plant in 2014, Michigan Assembly will take just four weeks to remove and reinstall the tooling necessary to build the new Ford Ranger and Ford Bronco.
The Romeo Engine Plant produces engines for the Ford Super Duty, E-Series, Ford Shelby GT 350 Mustang and Shelby GT350R Mustang, along with components for the F-Series, Mustang, Explorer and Edge. This investment adds capacity and tooling for components for an additional engine when the plant begins its transformation in early 2018.
As Ford expands to be both an automotive and mobility company, the company's data storage requirements are expected to increase from 13 petabytes today to more than 200 petabytes in 2021. The new data centers will help Ford create a world-class infrastructure for storage, processing and integration of this data. The centers also will increase the ability of Ford's global data insights and analytics team to transform the customer experience, enable new mobility products and services, and help Ford operate more efficiently.
For more information, visit www.corporate.ford.com.
