In addition to moving the plant to Avon Lake, Ford is going to invest $128 million into the Ohio facility.
There’s still plenty to see at the Cleveland Auto Show at the I-X Center!
The event runs through Sunday, March 4, and features sports cars, trucks, SUVs, classic cars and more.
Take advantage of this last weekend to see hundreds of vehicles.
There is plenty of good news coming out of the Cleveland Auto Show. Not only are vehicles becoming more fuel efficient, but one manufacturer is expanding its workforce. That’s good news for Ohio. Hundreds of jobs are headed to Northeast Ohio.
Ford is very excited about its commercial truck production being moved from Mexico to Avon Lake.
“We have a great workforce here in Northeast Ohio,” said Len Deluca, Director of commercial vehicles for Ford Motor Company. “Ohio Assembly is very important to us.”
That’s why at the Cleveland Auto Show, Ford is excited to talk about expanding its manufacturing plant in Avon Lake.
“We’re very excited about that, we’re actually tagging Northeast Ohio as Truck Town USA,” said Brian O’Donnell, President of Valley Ford Truck.
“We also feel it will be very good for our commercial Ford lineup to bring the truck back here into the U.S. and the assembly system,” Deluca added.
In addition to the E-Series cut-away truck, which is already built in Northeast Ohio, the Avon Lake plant will add the Medium Duty 650 and 750 truck, the F-53 strip chassis truck and F-59 commercial strip chassis truck to its Ohio production, which will being in early 2015.
“It’s a really exciting thing for us here in Northeast Ohio,” said O’Donnell.
“It’s a great spot to build the truck,” Deluca said. “Obviously, it’s advantageous from a geographical standpoint so it should be very good for our business.”
As a result, the additional production will bring hundreds of jobs to the Cleveland area.
“It will be the manufacturing jobs that we have in place today, but instead of building all the E-Series that we build here, it will be a number of different products that are used to meet our commercial market needs,” said Deluca.
Most of the trucks that will be manufactured in Avon Lake will need additional work once they come off the assembly line. That means more jobs will be created around the Avon Lake Plant.
“These are incomplete vehicles and they need to have something put on the back of them, and I’m sure as we begin planning for building our truck here at Ohio Assembly, that there will be a number of up-fitters that will lay the ground work to be around the plant to do their work,” Deluca said.
In addition to moving the plant to Avon Lake, Ford is going to invest $128 million into the Ohio facility.
“We’re committed to Northeast Ohio and we’re committed to the commercial vehicle industry,” said Deluca.
You can check out the trucks that will be manufactured in Northeast Ohio at the Cleveland Auto Show at the I-X Center.
Auto Show hours on Saturday are 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. and on Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
