Ford to expand large truck production to Canada

DETROIT – Ford Motor will expand production of its large Super Duty trucks to a Canadian plant that was previously set to be converted into an all-electric vehicle hub.

The new plans include investing about $3 billion to expand Super Duty production, including $2.3 billion at Ford’s Oakville Assembly Complex in Ontario, Canada, Ford said Thursday. The remaining investment will be used to increase production at supporting facilities in the U.S. and Canada, the company said.

Ford currently produces Super Duty trucks – the larger siblings of the F-150 full-size pickup used largely by commercial and business customers – at plants in Ohio and Kentucky.

Ford said the Canadian plant, which is expected to come online in 2026, will add capacity of roughly 100,000 units annually.

“Super Duty is a vital tool for businesses and people around the world and, even with our Kentucky Truck Plant and Ohio Assembly Plant running flat out, we can’t meet the demand,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said in a release. “This move benefits our customers and supercharges our Ford Pro commercial business.”

Investors responded favorably to the news, sending Ford stock to a new 52-week high before shares leveled off later in the day amid a broader market decline.

UBS’ Joseph Spak was among the analysts to applaud the additional investment in the highly profitable Super Duty models compared to money-losing EVs amid slower-than-expected adoption of electric cars and trucks.

“We believe this shows management’s confidence in more sustainable demand for Ford Pro vehicles,” he said Thursday in an investor note. “The [internal combustion engine] investment over EV investment should be viewed positively.”

Ford had previously announced plans to invest $1.3 billion into the Canadian plant for EV production. Those plans included a new three-row SUV, which the company recently delayed until 2027.

The announcement comes weeks after Farley said full electrification of “big, huge, enormous” vehicles such as Ford’s Super Duty trucks was “never going to make money.”

Ford said it has plans to “electrify” the next generation of its Super Duty trucks, however it declined Thursday to disclose additional details.

The company said the move supports Farley’s Ford+ blueprint for profitable growth, including maximizing Ford’s manufacturing footprint. It’s the latest pullback for the restructuring plan involving EVs, however the automaker said it still plans to produce the three-row EV at an unspecified plant, starting in 2027.

The Ford+ plan initially focused heavily on EVs when it was announced in May 2021 during the company’s first investor day under Farley, who took over the helm of the automaker in October 2020.

At the time, there was significant optimism around all-electric vehicle adoption and potential profitability that have not materialized as quickly as many had expected.

Ford’s initial plan called for almost half of its global sales to be electric by 2030, fueled by more than $30 billion in investments in EVs through 2025. It’s unclear how much capital the company has spent on EVs to date. Its plans have changed several times, and its “Model e” EV unit lost $4.7 billion in 2023.

While Ford’s EV unit loses billions of dollars, its Ford Pro commercial business including its Super Duty trucks earned $7.2 billion before interest and taxes in 2023.

The Ford+ plan also included a target of 8% earnings before interest and tax, or EBIT, profit margin for the EV unit by the end of 2026. Ford withdrew that target earlier this year. It would have been a massive turnaround from a profit margin of roughly negative 40% in 2022.

Ford said the new Super Duty production will initially secure approximately 1,800 Canadian jobs at the Oakville Assembly Complex, 400 more than would initially have been needed to produce the three-row EV.