Ford said on Monday that it would invest $ 2 billion to convert Louisville’s assembly into a factory capable of making a new generation of affordable EVs, starting with a medium -sized truck with a basic price of $ 30,000 that will start at 2027.
This is not a formal factory upgrade. To reduce the cost of construction, Ford has increased the mounting line of assembly line that started by Henry Ford founder more than 112 years ago.
The willingness of the automotive industry to change the old system of the century that made the Ford a domestic name reflects the high quality act to sell a series of affordable electric vehicles that could be made in the United States faster, more efficiently and with fewer parts, while maintaining margins. And as Monday noted Ford’s EV, Digital and Doug Field, not only reducing individual costs, but a change that will allow the automotive to compete with China.
Ford CEO Jim Farley described the new production system, the UN series and the investment of $ 2 billion as a bet.
“There are no guarantees with this project,” he said during an event left by the Kentucky plant. “We do so many new things that I can’t tell you with 100% uncertainty that all this will go right, it’s a bet. There is a danger. “
It’s a bet that he thinks Farley is worth doing. The company’s EV section published a loss of about $ 1.3 billion in the second quarter of 2025 and sales of the first two EVs, the F-150 Lightning and the Mustang Mach-E, fall.
And it is a bet that started several years ago with a team of skunkworks of about 500 people in California – led by former Tesla Alan Clarke executive and is filled with talent from companies such as Tesla, Rivian, Apple and Lucid Motors. The team, separated between Palo Alto and a new office in Long Beach, developed the new production system and the underlying vehicle platform to be used at the Louisville plant.
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The end result is what Ford calls the “Universal Production System”, which changes the line of the individual carrier to a three -branch assembly tree. Ford has also developed a global EV platform that will use lithium -iron phosphate batteries using a Catl of China’s Catl and is manufactured at the new Blueoval Battery Park battery plant in Michigan. This plant, which is expected to come online in 2026, will employ 1,700 hour workers.
The new EV platform will consist of large unicasting aluminum unicasting that use much less parts and will allow the front and rear of the vehicle to be assembled separately into two of the branches. The third industry is perhaps more remarkable. This is where the structural battery will be assembled with seats, consoles and carpets. The three components will come together at the end of the line to form the vehicle.
The end result is an EV that has 20% less parts, including 50% less cooling and connections, and 25% less fasteners, according to Ford. The first EV from the line will be a medium pickup that is about the same size as a Ford Maverick, but more spacious inside.
Unlike a traditional assembly line, where workers move along the addition of wiring and other sections in the context, the EV platform will consist of three kits. Within this kit, all the fasteners, scanners and electrical tools needed for work are included – and with the right orientation for use, according to Ford. The system also reduces the number of water stations by 40%.
The EV platform will be produced 15% faster, the company said.
“I have certainly never seen anything in the public sector that looks like this,” Clarke told TechCrunch in an interview before the launch. “And I think a manufacturing expert will look at this, and especially if he was in the automotive industry for a few decades, it would be somewhat to fool him and say,” Why would you do that? “”
Clarke is convinced that as soon as the experts in the construction see how fast a vehicle can go from start to finish, others will try to imitate this.
The new format and accompanying EV platform will change the way the Louisville plant operates and reduce the number of employees employed there. The transformation will probably be fluttering through the wider supply chain. After all, Clarke says, this will maintain US jobs.
Ford employs about 2,808 hourly workers in its own Louisville assembly factorymade by Ford Escape and Lincoln Cosair. The production of these two vehicles will continue at the factory by the end of this year, before Ford begins to rebuild the plant and move to the new UN family. Finally, the plant will support 2,200 hour workers – 600 less than today.
A Ford spokesman said the automotive industry has offered a special retirement incentive program for employees. If fewer than 600 employees receive the early retirement offer, they will be offered roles in other facilities.
Fewer workers and a “significant” increase in automation may usually cause protests by United Auto workers. But Clarke says Ford worked with UAW from the beginning and that there is “buy in”.
“The teams are really excited about what comes because they know that we need to be competitive and we have to make money from this project to stay in America,” he said later, adding, “this is not really, you know, optional.”
Many UAW representatives spoke during the event and supported the change, which they said would reduce the twisting, turn and flexion required by assembly workers and improve security.
“Ergonomics has been taken on it much more,” said Brandon Reisinger, president of the Louisville Assembly plant. “We need to have a healthier workforce. It should be able to return home and not hurt at the end of the day, which will be great.”
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