Ford is deciding between Windsor, Ontario and Mexico for the production site of its new 1.5L and 1.6L four-cylinder engines. As many as 5,000 direct and indirect jobs could be created for the former hub of Ontario’s auto manufacturing sector.
The Windsor Star is reporting that the new engines would be used in the next-generation Ford Fiesta, which is slated to be built in Thailand. According to the paper, gasoline, diesel and hybrid powertrains all have the potential to be built at the two engine plants, which currently produce the low-volume 5.0L Coyote V8 and other engines for heavy-duty trucks.
Funding from Canada’s federal government is expected to be a key factor in the deal, with the Ontario government already earmarking $385 million for the two plants. Unifor, the union representing Canada’s domestic auto workers, has also apparently given $150 million worth of concessions to secure the new investment.
Why are those engines being built by doctors?
@thelaine – those auto unions sure can negotiate a mean contract ;)
Agreed Lou. Well done, sly Canadians.
Canada is on a roll!
Burger King is thinking about buying a Canadian donut and restaurant chain and doing the tax inversion thing to see their tax liability reduced from 35% in the US to 15% in Canada.
Imagine that! A Canadian Burger King! Is nothing sacred?
Apparently not. Anheuser-Busch is Belgian. Miller and Coors are South African. Chrysler is Italian.
All we need now is for McDonald’s to become Scottish.
McHaggis has a nice ring to it.
They do have some truly inedible items in Scottish Cuisine, such as deep fried Mars Bars, so McDonalds would fit in well
I wanted you guys to know, you both made me laugh out loud with your comments.
A few years back I attended a function at RAF SpadeAdam for a retiring RAF friend of mine I’ve known since my days in the US Air Force, and got to spend a week in a Scottish Castle for lodging. Excellent experience!
While there, my wife and I, being the adventurous types, tried a lot of the local foods during that week, including Haggus.
After the first few times, we quit asking what dishes were made of or what animal parts were in them, choosing instead to just enjoy the flavor and bouquet of what was served us.
Your comments brought back the memory of the reaction another friend of mine had when I told him the Chili he just ate was made with rattlesnake meat. Up to that point he thought it was chicken.
If you ask, you may not like the answer you get.
I’m a doctor, but I don’t play one on TV. These doctors are supplementing their income with fun things to do, like I do with woodworking.
I wonder if there are assembly line workers in Canadian maternity wards delivering little hockey players.
SWAG – Ford will choose Mexico unless Canada & Ontario Provincial Government literally pay Ford hundreds of thousands if not millions per job, with the understanding that Ford execs can give golden showers upon wigged Canadian Ministers of Parliament at their discretion and upon their leisure, for sh!ts & giggles.
Agreed, which location works out the cheapest
The two Windsor plants are under-utilized. They currently build all the 5.0L engines at the Essex plant which is currently a good deal of volume, but that engine’s volume is being whittled away by the Ecoboost engines. The Windsor plant, which everyone expected to be closed by now, still builds the 5.4L V8 and the 6.8L V10 engines for commercial applications. Volume there is dwindling as well with the E-Series vans gone, and only chassis cabs, cutaways and strip-chassis applications to support. I’m not sure what the siutation is down in Mexico, but these 4 bangers will be lower margin than the current crop of Canadian engines. The cost disparities between Canada and Mexico are really big, possibly too big to overcome even with the inevitable greasing from the government.
I’m glad for the Ford workers, and its certainly good for Ontario, and Windsor.
UNIFOR agreed to some concessions. Interesting news, because the rumour mill at the Oshawa plant, is running full steam right now.
If UNIFOR opens up the contract, to secure more work, look to Chrysler, and GM to come knocking at UNIFOR’s front door.
Decisions, decisions.
Hope your gain is not our loss. Originally, these engines were built in Brazil. Being that now these engines are making their way into Brazilian Ford offerings, maybe the engine plant here won’t lose to many jobs.
And sure hope the state government in São Paulo got their money back. In the height of the crisis both our federal and that state’s governments granted makers money.
Global economy for you!
Not sure what to believe from this article, as the writer is on the RWNJ beat, not the auto beat, and he states that the Coyote program is winding down by the end of the year, just as the 2015 ‘Stang launches (perhaps he means the pickup truck application?). We can definitely expect federal and provincial cheddar to be on the table, and I’ve also heard talk of hourly wage concessions. I hope it works out.
For the Ontario government it simply a question of math. Ontario is up to its eye brows in debt. The question, is will the provincial and federal government gain, or lose, by writing the check.
The Liberals lost their last MPP west of London in the last election…I think they’ll be good for a cheque. I would assume some level of corporate welfare has already been budgeted for.
Is their Bridgend, Wales factory full utilised?
It will boil down to the politics of buying votes in Ontario.
If you’re building an econobox in Thailand, you’re not going to produce its engine in Canada.
The engines are likely to find their way into other models here, and they won’t all be econoboxes.
Makes sense. The 2.0 is actually quite old. It’s a mazda engine ford owns the rights too. It has been in production since 2001.
Finally, another person who knows the Ford 2.0t is a Mazda L engine! Closely related to the MZR and we all know how fuel efficient that was in Mazda3s prior to Skyactiv.The 2.0t production is all from Valencia, Spain.
The 1.6t has been coming from Bridgend Wales, as noted by someone above, although I had thought the main unit is 1.5t these days as used in Fusion. It’s more modern than the 1.6, whose provenance I’m not clear on.
Isn’t the 1.6 an evolution of the zetec?
I know the 1.5 has many more advanced features like cast in exhaust manifold. To me it sounds like ford used what they had while doing the heavy engineering later. Gives them some time and the results aren’t half bad.
I think the 1.5 is coming from Romania? I thought the 1.6 was coming from Valencia Spain? I also know some stuff comes out of the Dagenham plant but, not sure what.
Why does Ford even have both engines? (1.5 and 1.6) If the 1.5 is the newer design, why not just produce that now for simplicity’s sake? Oh wait, maybe I just answered that…
Yeah sure, why not. Go for it. Give out money you don’t have and never will have.
http://www.debtclock.ca/provincial-debtclocks/ontario/ontario-s-debt/
http://www.fraserinstitute.org/research-news/research/publications/Comparing-the-Debt-Burdens-of-Ontario-and-California/