Ford Motor announced on Tuesday that it will invest approximately $1.3 billion (1.8 billion Canadian dollars) in its Oakville Assembly Plant in Ontario, Canada, to convert the facility into a cutting-edge electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing hub.
To be renamed the Oakville Electric Vehicle Complex, the plant will produce Ford's next-generation EVs, which are anticipated to hit the market around the middle of the decade. The conversion process is expected to take six months, commencing in the second quarter of 2023.
Dave Nowicki, Ford's Director of EV Manufacturing, explained during a media call, "We're reusing all of its infrastructure, from the land itself to the buildings and even its roads to quickly prepare for a new generation of manufacturing."
Ford has not disclosed the expected production capacity of the revamped facility or the number of EV models it will manufacture. In 2020, when Ford initially agreed to the investment deal with Canadian auto union Unifor, the plant was projected to produce five EV models. However, Automotive News reports that this figure may have been reduced to two vehicles.
The Oakville complex's transformation will involve consolidating three body shops into one, as well as incorporating battery pack assembly. The facility will utilize cells from a battery plant currently under construction in Kentucky.
This conversion marks Ford's first complete retooling of a North American gas-powered vehicle production facility into one that manufactures EVs. In the past, the company has either retooled parts of plants, expanded existing plants, or announced new production facilities for EVs.
Until the plant's downtime next year, the Oakville facility will continue to produce the gasoline-powered Ford Edge and Lincoln Nautilus crossovers. A company spokesperson declined to reveal production plans for these vehicles following the completion of the investment.
This substantial investment is in line with Ford's objective of achieving production capacity for 2 million EVs worldwide by the end of 2026.
