LIMA — Ford Motor Company is investing heavily in its Ohio plants, with a $1.5 billion investment coming to Avon Lake’s Ohio Assembly Plant, which will be the assembly site for a new commercial electric vehicle (EV), creating 1,800 new jobs. However, Lima’s Ford Engine Plant will also see benefits from this new investment.
According to the release from Ford, an additional $100 million will be invested between the Lima plant and the Sharonville transmission plant, creating an additional 90 new jobs between the two facilities.
“This is great news for Lima and Allen County,” Ohio Sen. Matt Huffman, R-Lima, said in a statement. “The Senate has worked diligently to provide the economic environment to attract major investments like this commitment from Ford.”
Ford did not respond to a request to clarify the investment and job additions specifically for the Lima plant. The UAW Local 1219 also did not respond to a request for comment.
“Ford is America’s No. 1 employer of hourly autoworkers, and this investment only deepens our commitment to building great new vehicles — from an all-new Mustang to new EVs — right here in the U.S. in partnership with the UAW,” Ford Executive Chair Bill Ford said in a statement.
Construction at the Lorain County plant is expected to begin later this year, with assembly of the commercial EV expected to begin mid-decade, according to a release from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who was at the Avon Lake facility Thursday to celebrate the announcement.
“I want to thank Ford Motor Company for its dedication to Ohio,” DeWine told plant workers Thursday. “We’re an automotive state. We’re an automotive parts state. That’s our history. But today is about our future, and our future is that manufacturing is now moving in Ohio forward. This is the future of manufacturing. This is the future of Ford Motor Company. This is the future of our workers as we make electric vehicles.”
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, also issued a statement praising Ford’s investment.
“A dozen years ago, plenty of politicians wrote off the American auto industry,” he said. “We have proved them wrong every day since, and today Ohio represents the future of the global auto industry.”
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