Ford expands heavy truck production to Canada

Detroit – Ford Motor Company The company will expand production of large Super Duty trucks to a Canadian factory that was previously scheduled to be converted into an all-electric vehicle hub.

Ford said Thursday that the new plan includes investing about $3 billion to expand Super Duty production, including $2.3 billion at Ford’s Oakville Assembly Plant in Ontario, Canada. The remaining investment will be used to expand production at support facilities in the U.S. and Canada, the company said.

Ford currently produces Super Duty trucks, larger siblings to the full-size F-150 pickup truck used primarily by commercial and business customers, at plants in Ohio and Kentucky.

Ford said the Canadian plant, scheduled to begin operations in 2026, will add annual production capacity of about 100,000 vehicles.

“Super Duty is a vital tool for businesses and people around the world, and even though our Kentucky truck plant and Ohio assembly plant are operating at full capacity, we are unable to meet demand,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said in a statement. “This move benefits our customers and accelerates our Ford Pro commercial vehicle business.”

Ford previously announced plans to invest $1.3 billion in its Canadian factories to build electric vehicles, which would have included a new three-row SUV, but the company recently delayed that until 2027.

The announcement came just weeks after Farley said that going all-electric for “big, giant” vehicles like Ford’s Super Duty trucks “will never be profitable.”

Ford said it plans to “electrify” its next-generation Super Duty trucks, but declined to provide details Thursday.

The company said the move supports Farley’s Ford+ plan for profitable growth, which includes maximizing Ford’s manufacturing footprint.

The Ford+ plan, initially announced in May 2021 during the company’s first investor day under Farley, who took the helm in October 2020, was focused on EVs.

At the time, there was a lot of optimism about the adoption and potential profitability of fully electric vehicles, but it didn’t happen as quickly as many expected.

Ford’s original plan was to have nearly half of its global sales be electric by 2030 and to invest more than $30 billion in EVs by 2025. It’s unclear how much capital the company has spent on EVs so far; the company’s plans have changed several times, and its EV division, the Model E, lost $4.7 billion in 2023.

While Ford’s EV division is losing billions of dollars, its Ford Pro Commercial Vehicles business is expected to make $7.2 billion in profit before interest and taxes in 2023.

The Ford+ plan also included a goal of achieving 8% earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) for its EV division by the end of 2026. Ford backed away from that target earlier this year. That would have been a sharp turnaround from 2022’s roughly negative 40% margins.

Ford said assembly of the new Super Duty will initially support about 1,800 Canadian jobs at its Oakville assembly plant, 400 more than originally needed to produce the three-row EV.