Ford’s Cleveland Engine Plant Starts Third Shift to Meet Growing Demand for Fuel-Efficient EcoBoost V6 Engines

Growing customer demand for cars and trucks powered by Ford’s fuel-efficient 3.5-liter EcoBoost® and 3.7-liter V6 engines brings a third shift of engine production to Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1 beginning Monday.

“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.”

Introduced in 2009 on the Ford Taurus SHO and Lincoln MKS, EcoBoost technology combines direct injection and turbocharging.

This solution has been popular with customers, who have purchased 180,000 Cleveland-built 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 engines since 2009. In 2011, Ford sold a record 121,000 vehicles equipped with 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 engines when F-150 began offering an EcoBoost option.

In first-quarter 2012 alone, Ford sold more than 39,000 vehicles equipped with the 3.5-liter EcoBoost engine, representing more than a 285 percent increase from the first quarter of 2011.

Cleveland Engine’s 3.7-liter V6 serves as the base engine for two iconic Ford vehicles – Mustang and F-150 – and is a favorite among customers.

The F-150 3.7-liter V6 outsells all other competitive V6 full-size trucks and carries an EPA fuel economy rating of 17 mpg city and 23 mpg highway. The Ford Mustang equipped with the 3.7-liter V6 and available six-speed transmission broke new ground as the most fuel-efficient Mustang ever with 31 mpg highway and 19 mpg city.

The 250 jobs being added in Cleveland for running the third shift primarily will be filled by employees transferring from Cleveland Engine Plant No. 2, which is scheduled to end production later this week.

Later this month, Ford will add one shift of F-150 production at its Kansas City Assembly Plant, allowing the company to better meet increasing demand for America’s best-selling vehicle.

Source: Ford Motor Company