Since 2011 Ford have invested €3bn in their plant at Almussafes in Eastern Spain, where they build cars including the Mondeo, Galaxy, S-Max, Tourneo Connect, and Transit Connect. Now Ford will put €750m into the plant to build the second generation of their Kuga compact SUV.
The Kuga already is assembled at Almussafes for European and international left-drive markets. The next generation goes on sale in 2020. About 170,000 Kuga models have been assembled in the first 10 months of 2017 at a rate of 940 a day. It is forecasted that the full-year figure will exceed 200,000, with 80% of production exported.
Ford estimates Almussafes’ total output this year will top 400,000 units. The automaker have not broken out total production by model but say they are assembling 525 Tourneos and Transit Connects daily, followed by the Mondeo (260), S-Max (140), and Galaxy (95).
The Almussafes plant will finish 2017 with a workforce of 8,400 employees after the absorption of 3,300 employees since 2013 as a result of agreements on fixed employment reached between Ford and unions. In addition, a second shift will be added in late April, when Ford begin mass production of the new Maverick engine, presently is in the testing stage.
