DETROIT — Ford Motor Co said on Tuesday that next year it will start retooling utility sports car assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario, for manufacturing tram, fulfill the promise to Canada’s Unifor union during contract negotiations in 2020.
Ford plans to begin overhauling the Oakville complex in the second quarter of 2024, laying off most of the plant’s production workers until the new EV assembly system starts operating in late 2024, officials said. company official said Tuesday in a conference call.
As part of a $1.8 billion Canadian ($1.34 billion) overhaul, the 70-year-old complex will feature a new building. battery Dave Nowicki, Ford’s director of electric vehicle operations, said.
Ford officials declined to say whether the plant will assemble five electric vehicle models as agreed with Unifor during the 2020 contract negotiations.
The scale, time and location of Ford’s electric vehicle production investment, General Motors Co and Stellantis NV will be at the heart of contract negotiations later this year with unions on both sides of the US-Canada border. Both Unifor and USA United Auto Workers wants Detroit automakers to commit to keeping jobs as they transition from combustion to electric vehicles.
The Oakville plant is currently building a combustion system Ford Edge And Nautilus Lincoln SUVs are being discontinued. The plant renovation is part of a $50 billion investment program through 2026. Ford CEO Jim Farley said Ford will have the capacity to assemble 2 million electric vehicles globally by 2026.
Ford officials say Oakville will build its next-generation electric vehicle, which Ford executives say will have to be more efficient, easier to assemble and more competitive with Tesla vehicles currently leading the sales of electric vehicles in the North American market.
Battery cells for electric vehicles built by Oakville will come from a Ford plant and battery partner SK On plan under construction in KentuckyNowicki said. He said it was too early to know if the battery would meet the domestic content requirements to qualify for a purchase subsidy under the US Inflation Reduction Act.
