Ford Motor Company has big plans for 2014 that include lots of new vehicles, new plants, and the hiring of thousands of new employees.
They’ll be launching 23 new vehicles worldwide in 2014 which is the most they’ve launched in one year in over a century. The plan calls for 16 of those vehicles to debut in the United States including the Ford Mustang, Ford Transit Connect, Ford Transit and Lincoln MKC.
Two new engines will also be a part of their offerings next year. There will be a new EcoBoost 2.3-liter along with a second engine that has yet to be revealed. Also, the existing 1.0-liter EcoBoost found in the Ford Fiesta will be coming to North America.
Ford recently retooled their Kansas City plant and will also be adding an additional 2,000 jobs there next year in order to help meet their aggressive production schedule. This will allow them to keep up with the already high demand for the F-150 and will also support production of the all-new Transit. That vehicle is slated to begin production in the second quarter of 2014.
Expanding the Kansas City plant and hiring new employees there is just one part of the plan to meet increased demand. They will also be opening two new manufacturing facilities in the Asia Pacific and a third facility in South America.
The Asia Pacific will see the opening of the Changan Ford Assembly Plant No. 3 and Changan Transmission Plant in Chongqing, China. The assembly plant will increase their production in China by 300,000 units per year. The third plant will be the Camaçari Engine Plant set to open in Brazil.
All these new plants also mean there will be a lot of new hires. Ford plans to hire 6,000 employees in Asia and another 5,000 in the United States. About 3,300 of those US jobs will be salaried positions most of which will be in product development, manufacturing, quality and IT.
Nicole Wakelin fell in love with cars as a teenager when she got to go for a ride in a Ferrari. It was red and it was fast and that was all that mattered. Game over. She considers things a bit more carefully now, but still has a weakness for fast, beautiful cars. Nicole also writes for NerdApproved and GeekMom.
