In order to build its new Escape, a fuel-efficient small utility vehicle with an automatic transmission that was launched on June 13, Ford Motor Co. (IW 1000/16) announced it has added 1,800 jobs at Louisville Assembly Plant (LAP).
The company plans to add an additional 1,300 more employees to a third shift this fall, bringing total hourly employment at the plant to 4,200.
"Today marks a celebration of progress and transformation," said Mark Fields, Ford's president of The Americas. "Louisville Assembly Plant's reinvention illustrates how Ford is going further, continuing to invest in American manufacturing and new jobs while delivering even more of the fuel-efficient vehicles that give customers true power of choice."
Ford has added more than 5,200 hourly jobs in the U.S. this year alone. With LAP's third shift, by year-end, Ford is on pace to deliver more than half of the 12,000 new U.S. hourly jobs it committed to add by 2015.
The company invested $600 million to convert LAP from a plant producing body-on-frame SUVs into a facility that builds fuel-efficient small utility vehicles with automatic transmissions. The upgraded LAP is capable of producing up to six different vehicles at the same time, making it Ford's most flexible U.S. plant.
