Ford to Pump $135 Million into Michigan Electric-Drive Component Plants
By John O'Dell May 24, 2010
Ford Motor Co. said it will invest $135 million to upgrade two of its Michigan plants so that more of its hybrid-electric vehicle components can be built domestically as the U.S. automaker looks to expand its fleet of hybrid-electric and battery-electric vehicles over the next few years to meet more stringent U.S. fuel-economy standards.
Ford will use factories in Michigan to build components for electric-drive vehicles suhc as the new Focus EV coming next year.
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Ford's investment will add 170 new jobs at the plants and enable its to assembly hybrid battery packs at its Rawsonville Plant in Ypsilanti - they're currently assembled in Mexico - by 2012, said Sherif Marakby, Ford's director of electrification programs and engineering. Additionally, by 2012, Ford's Van Dyke Transmission Plant in Sterling will be able to make electric-drive transaxles that are now produced in Japan, Marakby said.
Ford is looking to meet more stringent fuel-economy standards both domestically and abroad by expanding its hybrid-electric vehicle sales. The company is planning to debut two new hybrids, a plug-in hybrid and two battery-electric vehicles - a Transit Connect commercial van and a Focus sedan - in North America within the next two years.
"We do all the integration meaning -- the software, the controls, how these parts all work together -- we do that right here in Michigan, and by having the components or the parts, all developed in house, it makes it that much easier to integrate and get more fuel economy out of it," Marakby said.
Ford debuted a hybrid version of its Ford Escape SUV in 2004 and won the 2010 Detroit Auto Show's North American Car of the Year award with its Ford Fusion Hybrid. The company's U.S. hybrid-vehicle sales for the first four months of the year jumped 55 percent from a year earlier to more than 9,700 vehicles. Ford, which has sold about 130,000 hybrid vehicles in the past six years, will add the Lincoln MKZ hybrid this fall.
Overseas, Ford will have five battery-electric or hybrid-electric vehicles ready for the European public by 2013. The company next year will start selling a battery-electric version of its Transit Connect van in Europe, while a Ford Focus EV will debut in Europe the following year. Ford will also introduce an additional hybrid-electric model in Europe by 2013, but hasn't disclosed details.


Danny King, Contributor
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