Ford Spain will bet in the next few months by the electrification of the vehicles that it manufactures in its factory of Almussafes but it is not clear what will be the future of motor manufacture, in the air after the multinational announced in October of last year that the new generation of propellant -that are being made today in the headquarters of valencia-, go, mostly from 2022 to production centres in north america. According to the president of Ford Europe; Stuart Rowley, who has visited the valencia site, the company seeks out and investigates options for the future.
The multinational will be injected into the plant of Almussafes 42 million euros to support the electrification of several of the models that come out of the assembly line for the valencia plant. In particular, we will invest eight million in order to manufacture the hybrid version of its minivans S-Max and Galaxy, another 10 million will be for the hybrid versions of the Ford Kuga -which has begun to be manufactured in the centre of valencia-, and the remaining 24 million euros will be used to put up two assembly lines of batteries for vehicles electrified from next September, has listed Rowley after an interview with the president of the Generalitat of valencia, Ximo Puig.
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“it Is difficult to have absolute certainty but we have great confidence in the investment in these new technologies of the future. This combined with the efficiency of the template Almussafes makes us ensure that we will continue with the collaboration that we have until now,” said the president of Ford of Europe.
According to the multinational, with these announcements, Almussafes will manufacture a total of seven versions of hybrid vehicles, the three model Kuga, which Almussafes began manufacture by the end of 2019 and you will be at full production in march, two of the Mondeo, and the new of its two minivans. Will be the plant that most hybrid vehicles produced Ford in Europe. The plans of the multinational are to introduce 14 models found in Europe before the end of this year.
Despite the new financial injection in Almussafes, the decision of the car company in October last year to award the new generation of engines EcoBoost -the current version is built at the valencia plant – to factories in north america, has created a lot of uncertainty among the trade unions around the maintenance of employment in the plant in Spanish.
The committee of the european works council of Ford has asked us to consider the factory to the Spanish candidate to the manufacture of current and future hybrid engines aimed at the european market so as to ensure the maintenance of some 900 jobs in Almussafes. After the announcement of Rowley, the concern about the lack of work load has not disappeared, according to the chairman of the committee, Carlos Faubel, UGT, that has shown to be satisfied by new investments, but insists on sitting down to talk with the management of the possible arrival of engines of new generation to Valencia.
“we have Not made a decision on the engines but we are committed to seek and investigate options for the future of the plant”, he reiterated Rowley.
The president of valencia, Ximo Puig, who has appeared before the media along with the executive of Ford, has said that the decision to place Almussafes on the shaft of the electrification of the company “gives us confidence” in the stability of employment and the continuity of the factory, which will be “the center of production of more hybrid models in Europe”.
Puig thanked the confidence of Ford in the Valencian Community, where it is the investor “more important”. The company has invested 3,000 million euros in Valencia since 2011, of them 750 to support the production of the new Kuga, the vehicle more electrified Ford to date.
2019 has not been a good year for the valencia plant, which has suffered four processes of regulation of temporary employment, the latter about 6,000 of its employees to take a reduction of 9,000 units of production. In addition, the group is undertaking a steep cut in Europe in an attempt to return to the benefits.
