Ford’s Halewood plant has started production of its new eDrive units, critical to Ford’s electrification strategy, that will power the electric versions of the Transit Custom and Puma vehicles.

This follows a £380m investment to transform Halewood from a traditional transmissions facility into a electric vehicle component manufacturing plant. The Halewood facility now has the capacity to produce 420,000 eDrive units annually that will power Ford’s electrification. Halewood’s production capacity will ensure that 70 per cent of Ford electric vehicles sold in Europe, including models such as the E-Transit Custom, the E-Tourneo Custom and the Puma Gen-E, will be powered by UK-manufactured technology.

Kieran Cahill, Ford’s European industrial operations VP, said : “With Halewood leading the way as our first in-house EV component manufacturing site in Europe, we’re building a thriving future together, with nine electric vehicles on the road in Europe by 2025.”

This transformation positions Halewood as Ford’s first in-house electric vehicle component manufacturing plant in Europe, with units set to be distributed across Europe and assembled at Ford Otosan plants in Romania and Turkey. In turn, Halewood and Dagenham will continue to support Ford UK’s annual export value as we manage the electric transition across our car and van line-up.

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