Ford adding 3rd shift, 250 jobs for EcoBoost V6 production in Ohio

Ford Motor Company has announced that they will be adding a third shift at the Cleveland Engine Plant #1 in an effort to meet demand for the popular EcoBoost V6 and the naturally aspirated 3.7L V6 found in models like the Ford F150 and base model Ford Mustang – a move that could save 250 jobs in the Cleveland Ohio area.

The Cleveland Engine Plant #1 builds the 3.5L EcoBoost V6 found in the Ford F150 EcoBoost, the Ford Taurus, the Ford Flex, the Lincoln MKS, and the Lincoln MKT. this powerful yet efficient V6 engine uses twin turbocharging to offer 365 horsepower and 350 to 420 horsepower depending on the application. Since being introduced in 2009, there have been over 180,000 new vehicles sold with the 3.5L EcoBoost V6 and 121,000 of those were sold in 2011; after the debut of the uber popular Ford F150 EcoBoost pickups. So far in 2012, Ford has sold more than 39,000 vehicles equipped with the 3.5L EcoBoost V6 – a 285% improvement over the number of EcoBoost vehicles packing the 3.5L variant last year. The Cleveland Engine Plant #1 is the only facility in the world that builds the EcoBoost V6 along with also producing the 3.7L V6 offered as the base engine of the Ford F150 and Ford Mustang so things are clearly very busy – leading the company to triple production at this plant to in an effort to continue to meet demand.

"Our engine plant in Cleveland is the first and only facility in North America to produce EcoBoost engines, and we are tripling production capacity to meet customers' growing needs for fuel-efficient engines," said Mark Fields, president of The Americas, at an employee celebration at the plant today." EcoBoost engines are a key part of our plan to give customers the power of choice – from EcoBoost-powered vehicles and hybrids to plug-in hybrids and full electrics."

The new third shift at the Cleveland Engine Plant #1 will bring 250 jobs to the facility but they wont be new jobs – as Cleveland Engine Plant #2 is scheduled to end production soon. The 250 “new” positions created at plant #1 will mostly be filled by workers who are transferring from plant #2 so while this move isn’t technically creating new jobs…it is saving lots of manufacturing jobs in the Cleveland area. This new third shift is scheduled to begin this coming Monday after production at Engine Plant #2 ends this week.

In addition to adding 250 jobs at the Cleveland Engine Plant #1, Ford Motor Company will also add an addition shift at the Kansas City Assembly Plant in an effort to meet the growing demand for the Ford F150 – which has been and continues to be the most popular vehicle selling in the United States. Even though Cleveland Engine Plant #2 is ending production with the end of the line for the 2.5 and 3.0L Duratec engines built there – more jobs in other plants shows the continued growth of Ford as a whole.