Ford Motor informed on Friday it would invest over 750 million euros ($885 million) in its Spanish plant located in the eastern area of Valencia to produce the new model of its Kuga SUV.
The Valencia plant uses over 8,000 people and, along with the Kuga, makes the Mondeo, S-Max and Galaxy vehicles and two models of van – mainly for export. Kuga represents around half of the production of the Valencia plant.
Ford has actually invested around 3 billion euros in the setups during the last 6 years, making Valencia among the two largest assembly operations in Ford’s international manufacturing system, along with the Chongqing factory in China.
“This substantial investment highlights Ford’s commitment to Spain as one of its essential manufacturing sites in Europe,” Ford stated.
The investment in the Spanish plant continues a pattern of vehicle production moving south or east in Europe, where incomes tend to be lower.
Spain’s car industry, consisting of auto parts producers, employs under 300,000 people, according to official data. It represents around 7 percent of the nation’s financial output, according to the vehicle production association Anfac.
