There is no turning back now. The 2015 Ford F-150 “Job One” ceremony marks the beginning of mass production of the all-new aluminum pickup truck. This is a big deal no matter how you look at it. It represents a huge investment in terms of money, time, and effort for Ford. We are talking more than $1 Billion dollars. It’s also a rebirth for Ford’s Rouge Truck plant. The facility has seen a major update and a retooling to support the production of the aluminum truck.
This also brought 850 new jobs to the site. The workers present at the ceremony were beaming with pride, as all of their hard work is starting to pay off with the 2015 truck rolling off the line.
This is a risk for the company as it’s not clear how consumers will receive the new design. There are some concerns about the dent resistance of the aluminum body, repair costs, and durability of the EcoBoost engines. However, early indicators are positive. Ford says that more than 250,000 people have gone to the website to configure a new F-150 within the last month, which is the most for any other new vehicle.
The Rouge facility is capable of producing up to 1,200 trucks per day. This week, it’s running at about half capacity while all processes are being checked and tuned. The second F-150 plant will come online later in 2015 to bring the total production capability of nearly 700,000 per year for the global consumption.
Ford says that the 2015 F-150 will start arriving at dealerships next month (December 2014).
The first “Job One” truck is the red one you see in the video.
Andre Smirnov is a life-long automotive enthusiast, writer, reporter, and software engineer. He has been a contributor at TFL since 2011.
