Crossover Crunch: Citing Demand, Ford Shortens Plant Shutdown to One Week

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky

Ford Motor Company is reducing the length of its usual summer suspensions by a full seven days in Kentucky. According to the automaker, production at the Louisville Assembly Plant will resume only “one week” after the normal July 4th shutdown. Like the horrendous Barenaked Ladies song of the same name, the news should prove very popular among a highly specific subset of America — assuming they get paid hourly and weren’t planning an extended vacation.

Normally, Ford takes around 14 days to overhaul factories for the following year’s production, but demand for the Ford Escape and Lincoln MKC has just been too high.

Escape sales from January through May are up more than 6 percent over last year’s numbers — which were also strong — for a grand total of 129,805 units. MKC sales were more modest, but still showed an increase over the same time frame.

“The record sales for Ford Escape through May are being driven by strong demand from our retail customers,” explained Ford’s head for North America Raj Nair. “This is our strongest ever retail start for Escape.”

As a result, the Kentucky-based factory will be the only Ford assembly plant in North America that will shorten its traditional shutdown period. However, several component plants will share Louisville’s extended summer schedule, including Van Dyke Transmission, Sterling Axle, Chihuahua Engine, Rawsonville, Chicago Stamping, Michigan Assembly Stamping and Woodhaven Stamping. Those locations will all break for July 4th and return the following week.

Ford anticipates the limited break should provide an additional 8,500 vehicles for future sale.

[Image: Ford Motor Company]

Matt Posky
Matt Posky

A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.

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 9 comments
  • 28-Cars-Later 28-Cars-Later on Jun 07, 2017

    Moar production, moar supply, moar decline in used valuations!

    • See 5 previous
    • Deanst Deanst on Jun 07, 2017

      @whitworth Lending institutions are actually cutting back on higher risk auto borrowers. Defaults have started to climb, so the banks are getting more picky. The economy has peaked so look for falling sales, made worse by loans being harder to get. Corporations largely get the memo late, and keep overproducing into the downturn.

  • Brettc Brettc on Jun 08, 2017

    One the other end of the spectrum, they could probably shut down Michigan Assembly for a couple of months and no one would notice/care except for the workers there.

  • Zip89123 Zip89123 on Jun 08, 2017

    Ford should have kept the place closed 2 weeks, because folks who have already paid for their vacations will be calling in sick.

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