Engineering news
Manufacturing in Britain by Ford can only “grow in importance” in coming years, the company’s boss has said.
Alan Mulally, president and chief executive of the automotive giant, made the comments in a lecture delivered to an audience of business leaders at the Confederation of British Industry.
In his speech, Mulally highlighted the significance of Ford's UK powertrain engineering and manufacturing. “Ford in Britain can produce two million engines a year including the latest low-CO2 technology petrol engines from Ford Bridgend in Wales and highly efficient diesel engines from Ford Dagenham in London.
"One-third of Ford cars globally are powered by engines manufactured and engineered in Britain."
Mulally emphasised the value of Ford's presence in Britain as a major pillar of its global ambitions: "It [the UK] has a global role and one that can grow in importance".
Next year will mark the hundredth anniversary of Ford manufacturing in the UK. Ford has committed to a £1.5 billion investment programme over the next five years in low-CO2 manufacturing and engineering facilities at Bridgend, Dagenham, Dunton and Southampton.
Ford's Dunton Technical Centre, with its responsibilities in both powertrain and commercial engineering, is the largest facility of its type in the UK, Ford said, and helps to make the US giant the UK's 11th largest R&D investor across all sectors.
The UK is the second largest market for Ford vehicles outside the US. Ford’s Fiesta is the top-selling model of the year so far, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.
In his speech, Mulally also described the turnaround achieved at Ford – the only major US car company to avoid bankruptcy in the recession. In 2006, when he joined the company, it recorded a loss at a time when US car sales were relatively strong.
By 2009, Ford posted a profit of $2.7 billion, a trend that continued in February 2010, when Ford’s US sales overtook those of General Motors for the first time in more than 80 years, the company said.