Ford’s Flat Rock Assembly Plant is about to get a big pile of money to help turn it into Ford’s second North American EV factory.
Ford
Ford is betting big on its domestic electric vehicle production plans. The automaker is about to sink $850 million into its assembly plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, to turn it into the second of its North American battery-electric vehicle factories, the company announced Wednesday.
Ford’s other electric vehicle factory is in Cuautitlán, Mexico, and will produce an electric SUV destined for market in 2020. The Flat Rock plant will build the cars based on Ford’s next-generation EV architecture.
“We’ve taken a fresh look at the growth rates of electrified vehicles and know we need to protect additional production capacity given our accelerated plans for fully electric vehicles,” Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president of Global Operations, said in a statement.
Ford had previously declared Flat Rock to be the home of its future autonomous vehicle production as well but those efforts will begin elsewhere in Michigan by adding self-driving hardware to purpose-built commercial vehicles at a different facility.
Ford’s hefty investment in its Southeast Michigan facilities will take place over the next four years and is expected to create up to 900 new jobs thanks to the addition of another production shift. The $850 million also includes modernization for tooling to help build the next-generation Mustang.
Update, 1:45 p.m. PT: Clarifies where Ford’s future commercial self-driving cars would be built.