- Ford will make Super Duty trucks at its Oakville, Ont. plant, instead of the electric SUVs it originally planned
- The Canadian plant will be one of three in North America making the popular and profitable model
- Oakville will also be the first to make Super Duty trucks with some form of electrification when the next-gen comes out
Plug-in is out, brute force is in. Ford has made a stunning announcement that after ending production of the Ford Edge and Lincoln Nautilus SUVs at its plant in Oakville, Ont. and starting preparations to make electric vehicles (EVs), the factory will now turn out F-Series Super Duty pickup trucks.
The automaker said the decision is due to the success of its Ford Pro program, which targets fleet customers, and that the Super Duty is one of its “most popular and profitable vehicles.” That said, it looks like there’s a possibility EVs may still be in the pipeline at the plant, although they’re definitely not a priority anymore.
Oakville will be the third North American plant for the Super Duty – which includes the F-250, F-350, and F-450 – along with Kentucky Truck Plant and Ohio Assembly Plant, which “are operating at full capacity,” the company said. Oakville will have capacity for up to 100,000 trucks.
Putting the Super Duty into the Canadian facility “also paves the way to bring multi-energy technology to the next generation of Super Duty trucks,” Ford said in a statement, “giving customers more freedom of choice and supporting Ford’s electrification plans.” While Ford bases the all-electric Lightning pickup on its light-duty F-150, current Super Duty trucks rely solely on gasoline or diesel.
Oakville was slated for a three-row electric SUV, and in a statement, Ford CEO Jim Farley said, “…we look forward to introducing three-row electric utility vehicles, leveraging our experience in three-row utility vehicles and our learnings as America’s No. 2 electric vehicle brand to deliver fantastic, profitable vehicles.”
Ford announced its plans to retool the Oakville plant in April 2023. The $1.8-billion investment included an assembly line for building battery packs. In an agreement with Unifor, the union that represents the plant’s workers, Ford said the plan was to build five electric models, with production starting in late 2024. It later delayed a three-row EV model from 2025 to 2027.
The automaker plans to invest some US$3 billion to expand production of the Super Duty, with US$2.3 billion earmarked for assembly and integrated stamping at Oakville, which will become a fully flexible plant. Bringing the truck in will initially require 1,800 employees, which Ford said is 400 more than it would need to start production of the three-row EV. Unifor-represented workers will start in 2026, a year earlier than planned.
The new truck production will also give a boost to Ford’s engine plant in Windsor, Ont., adding about 150 jobs to make extra V8 engines. The expansion overall will also add new employees and overtime to three plants in the U.S. that make transmissions, axles, and other components for the trucks.
In the first six months of 2024, the plants in Kentucky and Ohio made more than 200,000 Super Duty trucks, and Ford says demand is higher than what it can make right now.
In a statement, Unifor said that it welcomes the announcement and said Ford will begin installing tooling and equipment for Super Duty production and the stamping facility this summer. It added that later in the decade, Oakville will begin building the next-generation model, including an “electrified version,” and that the Canadian plant will be the “sole initial source of multi-energy Super Duty production.” The union added that the truck production “will replace previous production plans to build (EVs) in Oakville.”
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