Ford Converting Truck Plant to Build Electric Vehicles, Next Focus

Last year, Ford announced that it would idle its Michigan Truck Plant — yes, that’s its name — and then convert it to produce small, efficient cars, namely the next-generation Ford Focus. Today, the company announced it would invest $550 million into the Wayne, Mich., plant’s conversion; not only will the Focus be built there but so will an all-electric Focus that’s scheduled to hit the streets in 2011. The plant will now be called Michigan Assembly. Snazzy.

In 2005, Ford spent $300 million to make Michigan Truck’s body shop “flexible.” Supposedly, that investment will help make this future conversion faster and less expensive.

We might not normally cover such a story here on KickingTires, but these large numbers help illustrate the costs for a typical manufacturer to fundamentally change its operations to produce different vehicles. It takes years and nearly a billion dollars, and that’s for just one line of vehicles.

Source: Ford