As Automotive News says, the Dearborn plant produces a new F-150 every 53 seconds. The Dearborn Truck Plant is part of Ford’s 100-year-old Rouge manufacturing complex, which currently employs 7,500 workers.
Together with the UAW, Ford also announced that a technical training center near the Rouge complex will receive $35 million worth of upgrades, which will expand the site by half to 120,000 square feet. The upgrades to the technical center are part of a 2015 contract with UAW.
Earlier this year, a Boston company called XL Hybrids announced it can offer hybridization kits for the 2.7-liter Ecoboost and 3.3-liter base trucks, which can be installed by fleet mechanics. XL hybrid trucks can be rear- or four-wheel-drive. But Ford’s factory-built, rear-drive F-150 is expected to use the 5.0-liter V8 engine instead, and it reportedly will share its hybrid technology with the Mustang, which is also expected to receive a hybrid option in 2020. The F-150 hybrid system can also double as a mobile generator to operate power tools at remote job sites.
Chairman Bill Ford Jr. also hinted at other drivetrain options for the truck — including a fully electric version in the future: “It’s going to be a truck that takes you farther, without sacrificing power, and a truck that lets you do more when you get there, with electricity for everything, from your tools to your camping gear. […] Whether they’re gas, diesel or hybrid — or, when the time comes, fully electric — they will power the world in a sustainable way and remain built Ford tough.”
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