Ford investing $1.2B in 3 Michigan plants; focus on trucks, SUVs, big data & mobility services
28 March 2017
Ford Motor Company is 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 Michigan Assembly Plant to retool the plant to build the all-new Ford Ranger and Ford Bronco. Employees at Michigan Assembly Plant will begin building Ranger at the end of 2018 and 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, including Ranger and Bronco, at 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.
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. This is especially true as Ford grows its leadership in connectivity, autonomous vehicles, electrification and mobility services.
The new data centers are helping 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.
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—announced in January—to create a factory capable of producing high-tech electrified and autonomous vehicles.
During the past five years, Ford has invested $12 billion in its US plants and created a total of nearly 28,000 U.S. jobs.
Ford builds more vehicles in the United States and employs more hourly US workers than any other automaker.
In North America alone, Ford has invested more than $3.8 billion to develop more than 30 engines since 2009, when the company introduced its first EcoBoost engine. Since then, Ford has produced more than 8 million engines globally with the fuel-saving technology.
This has been planned since 2015 but Rump tries to take credit.
Posted by: SJC | 28 March 2017 at 07:30 PM
I was just going to say that myself SJC. Also in the news today, the keystone xl and dakota access pipelines, the ones he claimed would be using American steel, won't be because his rule only applies to new pipeline plans and these two are old pipeline plans.
Posted by: ai_vin | 29 March 2017 at 12:20 AM
If the XL ruptures and it WILL, the Ogallala aquifer suppling irrigation water to farmers in five state will be permanently contaminated. NO more grain exports to the world.
Posted by: SJC | 29 March 2017 at 04:34 PM