DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. will build the upcoming hybrid version of its F-150 pickup at its truck plant in Dearborn, Mich., company officials said Thursday.
The vehicle, announced in 2015, will feature a gasoline-electric motor that can double as a mobile generator. Until now, it had been unclear whether the automaker would build the hybrid model in Dearborn or in Missouri at its Kansas City Assembly Plant, which also makes F-150s. The F-150 hybrid is due out as a 2020 model.
"It's going to be a truck that takes you farther, without sacrificing power, and a truck that lets you do more when you get there, with electricity for everything, from your tools to your camping gear," Executive Chairman Bill Ford said at an event celebrating the 100th anniversary of Ford's Rouge manufacturing complex in suburban Detroit, which includes the Dearborn Truck Plant. "When it comes to building the best trucks in the world, we never rest. Whether they're gas, diesel or hybrid — or, when the time comes, fully electric — they will power the world in a sustainable way and remain built Ford tough."
Workers in Dearborn produce one F-150 every 53 seconds on average. The pickup is one of 28 vehicle models that have been built at the Rouge, where Ford currently employs 7,500 workers on three shifts.
"To us, it's more than a factory," Bill Ford said. "It's a source of pride for generations of workers who have built the best cars and trucks in the world. It's an all-American symbol of strength, opportunity and hope; a place where we've always been creating tomorrow together."
In addition to the product news, Ford and the UAW announced Thursday that Ford has invested $35 million to upgrade a technical training center a few miles from the Rouge complex, expanding the site by 50 percent to 120,000 square feet.
The automaker had agreed to the investment as part of its 2015 contract with the union.