Ford Investing Nearly $900 Million in Spanish Plant

MADRID – Ford will invest €750 million ($892 million) to build the second generation of its Kuga compact CUV at its plant in Almussafes in eastern Spain.

The Kuga already is assembled at Almussafes for European and left-drive markets. The next generation goes on sale in 2020.

Ford has invested €3 billion ($3.6 billion) in the plant since 2011. Almussafes also builds Mondeo, Galaxy, S-Max, Tourneo Connect and Transit Connect models.

About 170,000 Kuga models have been assembled in the first 10 months of 2017 at a rate of 940 a day. It is forecasted that the full-year figure will exceed 200,000, with 80% of production exported.

Ford estimates Almussafes’ total output this year will top 400,000 units. The automaker has not broken out total production by model but says it is assembling 525 Tourneos and Transit Connects daily, followed by the Mondeo, 260; S-Max, 140; and Galaxy, 95.

The Almussafes plant will finish 2017 with a workforce of 8,400 employees after the absorption of 3,300 employees since 2013 as a result of agreements on fixed employment reached between Ford and unions.

In addition, a second shift will be added in late April, when Ford begins mass production of the new Maverick engine, which is in the testing stage.

“Such investments cannot be considered as spectacular, (but) they will help to maintain the employment level in the Almussafes site,” Carlos Faubel, head of the UGT union at the Spanish plant, tells the EFE news agency.