HALEWOOD, England - Ford Motor Co will invest an extra 149 million pounds $180 million to increase the electric vehicle EV power unit capacity at its engine factory in northern England by 70%, as the U.S. carmaker pushes to go electric.
The additional funds will increase electric drive unit production capacity at the Halewood plant to 420,000 units annually from 250,000 units starting in 2024, according to the Detroit-based carmaker. Ford's total investment would bring the combustion engine factory to EV parts production to 380 million pounds.
Kieran Cahill, Ford's vice president for industrial operations in Europe, said in a statement that their vision is to build a thriving business in Europe, by extending leadership in commercial vehicles and electrifying our car range. Halewood is playing a critical part in our first in-house investment in EV component manufacturing in Europe. The EV power unit, which consists of an electric motor and gearbox, replaces the engine and transmission of a fossil fuel vehicle.
Ford intends to sell only fully-electric cars in Europe by 2030, and only electric commercial vans by 2035. That puts it ahead of the European Union's plans to ban the sale of new fossil fuel passenger cars by 2035.
Halewood is expected to supply 70% of the 600,000 EVs the company plans to sell in Europe by the year 2026, according to the carmaker.
Ford announced last year that the UK government contributed to the initial EV power unit investment at Halewood.