Ford Motor Company Louisville Assembly Plant – Louisville, Kentucky, USA

The Ford Louisville plant, also known as Ford Motor Company Louisville Assembly, is located in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. The facility currently assembles various vehicles.

Fast Facts

• Year opened: 1955
• Activity: vehicle assembly
• Facility size:
  • Site size: 180 acres
  • Plant size: 3,154,173 square feet
• Address:
  2000 Fern Valley Road
  Louisville, Kentucky, 40213
  United States
• Phone: (800) 392-3673
• Employment: about 4,610 employees
  • 4,722 hourly, represented by UAW Local 862
  • 247 salary
• Running shifts: 3

Plant History

Ford Motor Company has a long-standing presence in Louisville that spans over 100 years.

In 1913, Ford Motor Company began manufacturing Model T cars in Louisville at 931 South Third Street. In 1916, the automaker opened a new, four-story assembly plant at Third & Eastern Parkway. In 1925, Ford relocated its production operations to a new, one level assembly plant on Southwestern Parkway on the Ohio River. The current Louisville Assembly Plant, located on Fern Valley Road, opened in 1955.

The plant produced the majority (around 67 percent) of Edsel-branded vehicles in 1957-1959. Other models produced included Ford Sunliner, Fairlane and Galaxie. The facility also produced heavy trucks as well as full-size cars on a separate assembly line. Production of heavy trucks ended at the plant when Ford opened the Kentucky Truck Plant on Chamberlain Lane in 1969.

The plant’s passenger car production was augmented in 1973 with the addition of F-Series light trucks. Production of the F-Series/LTD continued until 1981, when the Ford Louisville Assembly plant was shut down for retooling for the Ford Ranger compact pickup truck and the related Ford Bronco II SUV. Production of the Ranger and Bronco at the plant began in January 1982. On April 26, 1988, the two-millionth Ranger/Bronco II was produced.

On February 14, 1990, Ford commenced production of the Ford Explorer SUV at the Louisville Assembly Plant, following a $563 million investment at the plant. The one millionth Explorer was made on August 27, 1993. Production of the mechanically identical Mercury Mountaineer began in April 1996. Production of the Ranger ceased in April 1999 when Ford began producing the Ford Explorer Sport Trac. Production of the Ford Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer ended in mid-December 2010.

Production of the Ford Explorer was moved to the Ford Chicago Assembly plant as the Explorer switched from a truck-like body-on-frame platform to the unibody D4 platform. Production of the Mercury Mountaineer ceased in conjunction with the discontinuation of the Mercury brand.

On April 4, 2012, the Ford Louisville Assembly Plant began producing the Ford Escape, which was previously made at the Ford Kansas City Assembly. Production of the Lincoln MKC was added on August 25, 2014.

Interesting Statistics

Ford’s Louisville Assembly Plant is located adjacent to the Louisville International Airport on the south side of the city. Driving distance from the airport to the plant is under 4 miles.

The plant houses:

• 20.1 miles (32.3 km) of conveyor belts
• 674 robots located with the body assembly area
• 294 programmable locating units

Additionally, the plant has the ability to produce up to six different vehicles at the same time.

A portion of the plant’s parking lot was resurfaced using large pervious pavers, which allow storm water to be deposited into the ground, removing approximately 18 million gallons of storm water from the city’s water system each year.

Products

In 2014, Ford Louisville Assembly produced:

• 258,670 units of the Ford Escape
• 33,193 units of the Lincoln MKC

Investments

• December 2010: $600 million to transform the plant into a state-of-the-art facility; the retooling has made the plant one of Ford’s most flexible, high-volume plants in the world
• August 2014: $129 million to produce the Lincoln MKC and launch the Lincoln Validation Center to support production of the all-new MKC; the center takes each vehicle through a series of inspections to ensure the highest level of quality

News

Follow our coverage of Ford Louisville plant news.

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