Ford Motor Company Bridgend Engine Plant – Bridgend, Mid-Glamorgan, UK

The Ford Motor Company Bridgend engine plant is an engine manufacturing facility operating under the Ford Europe administration. It is located in the town of Bridgend, in Whales, United Kingdom.

Operating since 1977, the Bridgend engine plant focuses its manufacturing operations on engines for Ford vehicles, but has also produced engines for other carmakers like Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo. As a matter of fact, Jaguar Land Rover has a plant within a plant at Bridgend, which saved the company considerable investment costs. While having the AJ-V8 engine assembled in Bridgend proved lucrative for JLR, the carmaker announced production will shift to its new Wolverhampton plant in 2020.

When it’s not producing V6 and V8 engines for Jaguar Land Rover he Bridgend engine plant overseas the production of the Ford 1.5L EcoBoost I4, Ford 1.6L EcoBoost and Ford 1.1L Duratec engines. Its average annual production capacity is of 750,000 engines per year.

This page shows information about the Ford Motor Company Bridgend Engine plant.

Quick Facts

Year opened	1977
Facility size	1,525,320 square feet (141,706 m2)
Land occupied	60 acres
Location	Waterton Industrial Estate, Cowbridge Rd, Bridgend CF31 3BF, United Kingdom
Hourly employees	N/A
Salaried employees	N/A
Total employees	1,700

Products

Engines	Production Years
Ford 1.1L Duratec	2017 - present
Ford 1.5L EcoBoost I4	2017 - present
Ford 1.6L EcoBoost	2009 - present

Historical Timeline

1977: After signing an investment deal with the Welsh Development Agency, construction was starts at the greenfield site.
1980: Production in Bridgend begins, focusing its operations on high-efficiency petrol engines. The first engine to come out of the plant is the CVH engine used in the then new third generation European Ford Escort.
2015: Volvo engine production ends at Bridgend. Ford introduces the new EcoBoost Dragon engine architecture. The Bridgend plant is chosen for its assembly.
2020: Jaguar Land Rover shifts production of its V6 and V8 engines to its own Wolverhampton facility. However, this operation is paused due to the Coronavirus global pandemic. The plant’s supply chain is also put to a halt.