US motor giant Ford Motor Company Thursday announced an investment of R600 million in the Struandale Engine Plant in Gqeberha, formerly Port Elizabeth. This investment will support the launch of a new 3.0L V6 turbodiesel engine Ford Ranger, as well as upgrades to the existing assembly line for the 2.0L Single Turbo and 2.0L Bi-Turbo diesel engines.
These variants will be all be offered in the recently next-generation Ford Ranger pick-up set for launch in 2022, the group said. The amount is over and above the R15.8bn already spent on the company’s Tshwane vehicle assembly plant that will produce the Ranger in 2022.
Ockert Berry, vice president of operations at Ford South Africa, commented: “The R600-million investment in the Struandale Engine Plant is part of our commitment to modernizing and growing our local operations, and is over and above the R15.8 billion investment in the Silverton Assembly Plant and supplier tooling that we announced in February this year to support production of the next-generation Ranger. Through this investment, we are introducing a third diesel engine to the Struandale operations, in the form of the new 3.0L V6 turbodiesel engine that will power selected next-gen Ranger models when production commences next year.”
Berry said the majority of the investment is going into expanding and modernizing the current assembly line that has produced the existing 2.2L and 3.2L Duratorq TDCi engines since 2011, with 792,000 engines assembled to date.
Ford’s Struandale Engine Plant currently employs around 850 people. While Ford said that this number will remain unchanged, the R600 million investment will ensure stability in local employment. These employees are currently undergoing new training in preparation of the new engine variant launch next year, Ford said.
