Ford currently has one electric vehicle production facility and is building another.
The Ford Mach-E is built in Mexico. The Cuautitlan Stamping and Assembly Plant (CSAP) is a Ford Motor Company manufacturing facility located in Cuautitlán Izcalli, Mexico. The 202-acre (0.82 km2) site opened in 1964. It is a 4,305,564 square feet facility with 2130 workers.
Ford took approximately one year to integrate new technologies and train the people who would assemble the vehicle before Mach-E production could begin. That process began with new stamping dies.
The dies weigh between 20 and 40 tons, and have a crane type gripper and two hooks capable of lifting up to 50 tons. In addition, there are 5 presses with between 1,000 and 2,500 tons of pressure to mold the sheets. Cuautitlan is the first plant to implement an anti-collision and anti-pendulum system in the cranes.
Cuautitlan is also the first Ford plant globally to use an artificial vision system to complete bodywork. In addition, it has 190 Fanuc-type robots with state-of-the-art dimensional location systems, allowing 90 percent of this process to be automated.
The production area for the Mach-E is divided into two parts: trim, where the interiors are installed, and chassis, which handles the exterior parts, as well as the mechanical ones. The new line of high-voltage batteries has a 75 percent automated processes. Finally, 7 hours and 247 people are required for each shift for a vehicle to be completed at a rate of 20 units per hour.
Ford was expecting to produce 50,000 Mustang Mach-E in the first year and an eventual 180,000 cars per year. The all-electric Ford Mustang Mach-E noted 1,951 units (1% of Ford’s total result), which is noticeably less than in March and February. Ford invested $420 million to convert the plant from making Ford Fiesta’s to Mach-E.
Production of the Mustang Mach-E stands at some 6,155 units in April and close to 21,000 YTD. The total production is already above 27,000.
FYI: Joe Hinrichs, Ford president of automotive, said at an event tonight in LA that Ford will produce about 50,000 Mustang Mach-E vehicles in the first year of production. “Limited,” he said, because of battery availability.
— Ian Thibodeau (@Ian_Thibodeau) November 20, 2019
As VW supplying the skate boards and packs assembled in Poland and then made in Mexico.
We all knew that.— 2ontrack (@2ontrack) November 20, 2019
Dearborn Rouge Plant for the F150 Lightning
Ford is building new facilities and repurposing facilities for the F150 Lightning. Most of the work is at the Rouge plant in Dearborn, Michigan. Ford initially invested $700 million in the new EV plant. The new Rouge Electric Vehicle Center will add 300 jobs as part of the project, which will support battery assembly and production of the F-150 PowerBoost hybrid and fully electric F-150. Ford is just beginning to build its redesigned 2021 F-150 at the Rouge complex and Kansas City Assembly with plans to ship to dealerships starting in November. They will use the current paint and body shop which is 500,000 square feet.
In November, 2020, Ford is boosted its production capacity for the F150 EV truck by 50 percent to meet projected demand. They invested another $150 million to build EV motors and transaxles at the Ford Van Dyke Transmission Plant. Ford’s investments for the F150 EV plants are over $850 million.
Ford will have limited F150 EV production in 2022 and full production ramp will be in 2023 if plans are met.
Ford expects to produce about 80,000 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning models a year.
SOURCES- Ford, Motor Biscuit, Marklines
Written by Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
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Very likely that they could to sell 350k/Cybertrucks a year, however, I think they are starting at the right level. No reckless gambles. There is any number of companies that went belly up building massive factories where demand disappeared for one reason or another.
The biggest concern I have with the Cybertruck is the Spartan interior. I don't think they know the truck market, when they do things like this. Even the car market is limited. There are a heck of a lot of people who don't want to go through nested menus to get to a control that was formerly just an easy to get to knob, button, or switch on their last vehicle.
Fine for young people with good memories and used to phones where everything requires going through layer after layer of nonsense. Not great for the 40+ crowd. And like it or not, they have most of the money.
I do think the Cybertruck is going to be the next police cruiser. The bullet resistant steel, and somewhat bullet resistant glass are a major step up. Then there is the great acceleration, offroad capability, greenness (mayors can tout), low maintenance, reasonably high roof so they can get cuffed people in the back, and it should be a snap to slap a police decal on the side, lights on the top and mesh between the front and back. The screen is terrific for all their screen stuff. The stealth of a quiet electric should help. The range also should be plenty for cruising, even patrolling highways. Police from countries arroud the World will want these.
If Tesla has a final goal of producing less than 200k cybertrucks per year – 2.5 times more than the F-150 Lighting final goal – then they would be fools. Even at 200k, the wait time for the already pre-ordered trucks would be 5 years.. An unacceptable long time for a customer to wait for a product.
Of course, Tesla will be battery constrained in 2021 and 2022, but perhaps they could ramp to 300-400k cybertrucks in 2023?
The short of the story is that the Tesla will vastly outproduce Ford in the electric pick-up market..
P.S. I know that not all pre-orders will convert to firm orders, but when production starts new orders will come pouring in… so 200k/year is an absolute low-ball number for the cybertruck.
They already have around 80,000 pre-orders for the Lighting, looks like they are gonna be production constrained just like Tesla. SHOCKER, make good vehicles, and people want to buy them.