Ford Motor Co., will start a $1.8-billion retooling challenge on the Oakville Meeting Advanced within the second quarter of subsequent yr, furloughing a lot of manufacturing workers for about six months because it prepares the Toronto-area plant to construct battery-electric autos by the beginning of 2025.

Preparations for the retrofit work that may start in “lower than a yr” are already beneath method, as Ford readies the Oakville plant for the electrical period, mentioned Bev Goodman, CEO of Ford of Canada.

“We’re thrilled that Canada and the staff of Oakville meeting are able to play an necessary a part of this unbelievable transformation.” Goodman mentioned April 11 in a convention name forward of the announcement.

Ford mentioned salaried and expert trades staff, in addition to some manufacturing workers will stay on the job through the six-month retooling challenge. An undisclosed variety of salaried workers will likely be furloughed by mid-2024, however scheduled to return to work by the tip of the yr.

The plant employs about 3,000 staff at present, and the corporate expects little change to staffing ranges on the facility as soon as EV manufacturing begins.

Dave Nowicki, director of producing operations, battery and electrical autos for Ford, mentioned the $1.8-billion retooling challenge, which obtained $590 million in joint help from the federal and Ontario governments, will overhaul the plant’s present footprint.

‘USING ALL OF ITS INFRASTRUCTURE’

“We’re utilizing all of its infrastructure — from the land itself to the buildings and even its roads — to shortly put together for a brand new technology of producing.”

Amongst different main modifications, Ford plans to consolidate the meeting website’s three present physique outlets into one.

“This not solely ought to save time on our future meeting course of, it ought to permit us to additional enhance construct high quality,” Nowicki mentioned, crediting the clean-sheet design of the corporate’s EVs for the smaller footprint.

Ford’s renewed Oakville campus can even home a 407,000 square-foot (38,000 square-metre) battery pack meeting constructing. Right here, the corporate will assemble battery cells sourced from its BlueOvalSK facility in Kentucky into battery packs able to be built-in into the EVs constructed on-site.

“When manufacturing on the all-new EV begins right here, battery packs will arrive on the meeting line in minutes, not hours. This sort of vertical integration drives unbelievable freight financial savings and timing efficiencies, at the same time as we’re delivering EVs at a really excessive scale,” Nowicki mentioned.

As a part of the plant transformation, the 487-acre (197 hectare) website can even be renamed to the Oakville Electrical Automobile Advanced.

Regardless of sharing the timeline for the retooling work, Ford didn’t disclose what autos the Oakville plant will construct. Goodman mentioned particular product particulars will likely be disclosed “when the time is correct.”

Ford’s retooled Oakville campus is scheduled to enter pre-production on battery-electric autos by late 2024 and manufacturing by 2025.