By Michael Elkins
American automaker Ford (NYSE:F) announced Tuesday that the company will be investing $1.3 billion to transform its SUV assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario to produce multiple electric vehicles and battery packs, fulfilling a promise made to Canada's Unifor union during contract bargaining in 2020.
Ford plans to begin overhauling the Oakville complex in the second quarter of 2024, idling most of the factory's production workers until the new EV assembly system starts up in late 2024, company officials said Tuesday during a conference call.
"The transition to EV production in Oakville will not only strengthen our business," Bev Goodman, Ford Canada CEO and president, said during a briefing conference call, "it will help deliver stable Canadian jobs."
The plant will be the company's first high-volume transformation of an existing plant in North America to make EVs after Cuautitlán Assembly Plant in Mexico transitioned to build the Mustang Mach-E SUV.
As part of the overhaul, the 70-year-old complex will get a new battery pack assembly operation, said Dave Nowicki, Ford's director of manufacturing operations for electric vehicles.
Ford officials declined to say whether the plant will assemble five EV models, as agreed with Unifor.
Battery cells for the Oakville-built EVs will come from a factory Ford and battery partner SK On plan to build in Kentucky, Nowicki said. It is too early to tell whether the batteries will meet domestic content requirements to qualify for U.S. Inflation Reduction Act purchase subsidies, he said.
Shares of F are up 1.85% in mid-day trading on Tuesday.