Ford, FCA Investing in Engine, Transmission Plants
Goal continues to be more power, fuel efficiency
In the relentless pursuit of power and efficiency, both Ford and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles today confirmed investments in engine and transmission plants to meet these sometimes dueling targets.
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Ford is investing $1.4 billion and adding or retaining 500 workers at its Livonia Transmission Plant in Michigan to begin assembly of a new 10-speed automatic transmission in June. The transmission was developed in partnership with General Motors. For Ford, the 10-speed will debut on the new 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor and further migrate into the pickup family and other future rear-drive vehicles. GM is debuting the 10-speed on the2017 Camaro ZL1. The two automakers also developed a nine-speed for front-wheel-drive vehicles.
Another $200 million will be spent at the Ohio Assembly Plant to add or retain 150 workers in Avon Lake, which makes Super Duty chassis cabs, part of an overall workforce of 1,650 that also make medium-duty trucks and E-Series cutaway vans and stripped chassis.
Ford has pledged to spend $9 billion in U.S. plants and add 8,500 jobs over the four-year term of the contract it reached with the UAW in 2015. That is on top of $12 billion spent over the last five years.
"We are proud that Ford employs more hourly workers and builds more vehicles in the United States than any other automaker," said Joe Hinrichs, Ford president, The Americas. "We are committed to manufacturing in the United States."
Fiat Chrysler is spending almostin its Trenton Engine Complex in Michigan to retool the north plant to make the next-generation four-cylinder engine on the assembly line that currently makes the 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6, retaining 235 jobs. Pentastar production will continue at Trenton South as well as Mack Avenue in Michigan and Saltillo South in Mexico.
Production of the new four-cylinder engine will start in the fall of 2017. That engine is said to achieve better fuel economy and fewer emissions but no further details are being released at this time.
"This investment in our flexible production line at Trenton North will allow us to quickly ramp up North American production of this new fuel-efficient engine," said, Vice President, manufacturing for FCA North America.
The Trenton Engine Complex employs more than 1,500 people. Since 2009,has spent more thaninand added nearly 15,600 new jobs, bringing total employment in the state to 35,314 including 21,621 hourly workers.
Source: Ford, FCA
Alisa Priddle joined MotorTrend in 2016 as the Detroit Editor. A Canadian, she received her Bachelor of Journalism degree from Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, and has been a reporter for 40 years, most of it covering the auto industry because there is no more fascinating arena to cover. It has it all: the vehicles, the people, the plants, the competition, the drama. Alisa has had a wonderfully varied work history as a reporter for four daily newspapers including the Detroit Free Press where she was auto editor, and the Detroit News where she covered the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies, as well as auto trade publication Wards, and two enthusiast magazines: Car & Driver and now MotorTrend. At MotorTrend Alisa is a judge for the MotorTrend Car, Truck, SUV and Person of the Year. She loves seeing a new model for the first time, driving it for the first time, and grilling executives for the stories behind them. In her spare time, she loves to swim, boat, sauna, and then jump into a cold lake or pile of snow.
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