Rural Electrification 2.0: Homecoming Party At Ford
Ford is in-sourcing important parts of their hybrid-electric vehicles, and they are putting $135m behind the effort to bring the parts home and in-house. Currently, core parts are made abroad. Moving the making home to Michigan will create a whopping 170 jobs in Rawsonville and Van Dyke. But it’s a start. “I am proud of the tremendous success of the UAW and Ford in working together to keep good manufacturing jobs in the U.S.,” said Bob King, UAW vice president, National Ford Department.
The move will cost the jobs of workers in Mexico which currently assemble the battery packs. It will also affect a manufacturer in Japan that makes the transaxles of the transmission system.
Adding another 50 engineering jobs, Ford engineers in Dearborn will design the battery packs while engineers in Livonia will design electric-drive transaxles for the next-generation hybrids. Why? Sherif Marakby, Director of Electrification Programs and Engineering, explains that here in living audio.
There is another reason. Says the Ford press release: “The investment includes a grant received from the Department of Energy to help create green technology jobs in the U.S. This investment includes manufacturing capital equipment, launch and engineering costs and supplier tooling upgrades, all required to support the production launch of the HF35 transaxle.” If the investment comes out of the taxpayer’s pocket, some payback should be more than fair.
Ford plans to launch five new full electric or hybrid vehicles for the North American market by 2012 and European markets by 2013.
- The Transit Connect Electric light commercial vehicle in North America later this year and in Europe in 2011
- The Focus Electric in North America in 2011 and in Europe in 2012
- A Lincoln MKZ hybrid, available this fall in North America
- A next-generation hybrid electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle based on Ford’s global C-car platform in North America in 2012
- A C-MAX hybrid electric and plug-in hybrid electric model for Europe in 2013
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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It's good to see the Rawsonville plant with new investment. I recall attending a plant open house in 1985 back before it became Visteon's--many good people and families in UAW local 898. The DOE investments, whether at Tesla, Nissan, Fisker, or Ford plants, exemplify the soundness of good industrial policy.
tho I no longer work in that area, the HF35 program has been an inhouse design from the start. I seriously doubt anyone making parts for HEVs or EVs is losing their job at this point with increased volumes industry wide for the parts. the batteries will be built at Rawsonville, not the old Ypsi Visteon plant right next to I-94, which is near as I can tell being mothballed at this point. Rawsonville has been back as part of Ford Powertrain for a number of years now.