Ford plans to invest $700 million more in its Kentucky manufacturing plant that will create 500 jobs to ramp up production of its all-new 2023 Ford F-Series Super Duty. Ted Cannis, Ford Pro CEO joined Cheddar News to discuss investments and preview the reveal. “Right now, it seems like everybody is interested in buying F-150 Lightning, but we're really focused on complete solutions for our customers and that's what Ford Pro is all about,” he said.

Ford Invests $700M In Kentucky Plant and Previews New Truck

Welcome back to closing bell and cheddar news. Everyone ford making a big investment in the state of Kentucky. The american automaker putting 700 million into its massive truck factory in Louisville something that it says will create 500 full time jobs all to help build the 2023 super duty pickups, the biggest vehicles and its popular F series lineup. Well, ford ceo Jim Farley said to unveil the new truck tonight at 7:15 p.m. Eastern at Churchill Downs racetrack, that's the home of the Kentucky Derby. And earlier I sat down with the Ceo ford pro ted cam is about this next generation pickup. Yeah, we're so excited investing $700 million. 500 additional jobs here in Kentucky. I'm here at the, in Kentucky at Churchill Downs, home of the famous Kentucky Derby where we're gonna be revealing the all new super duty America's number one commercial vehicle tonight. Look, it's gonna be a big night, that's for sure. Beautiful stadium behind you. What kind of demand do you expect for the new ford super duty demand is high. We have so much pent up demand even from before the crisis and customers are looking for these for the infrastructure projects going across America roads, ports, constructions of bridges, buildings, infrastructure and utilities, grids and everybody else who's towing and hauling. They're looking for these trucks in America up in the power lines or plowing your snow. So is this mostly gonna appeal to commercial customers and you think that individual retail buyers might take an interest as well. Well, that's absolutely right. Sure. The majority of the people are doing real work. The people you don't notice every day, the hard workers in America call out for you that are doing the tough jobs that get the country rolling in construction or mining. But there's many of these customers who have to tow a lot. They got a boat, they're going to the lake or the shore, They've got a horse carrier here in Kentucky or they're taking a motor home. They want to see the great America and they want to take it around and be pulling a motor home with them. So you have a bit of everybody. Look, I know I've actually been to Louisville recently just a few months ago. I know that horse racing farming, I mean that is the country for it. Is this super duty specifically meant to tow around some of these horses in some of this heavy duty machinery that you would see in a place like Louisville? Absolutely, 96% of our customers are towing or hauling something big and heavy and this is the product that we've been doing. We've been building vehicles here since 1913. Of course we're the number one assembler in America. And you look at the super duty, it has more revenue than companies like Southwest Airlines or Marriott or Nordstrom's. This is a big business and big for the american economy. Well, we've seen ford make some very big commitments to electrification. Certainly committing billions of dollars. Still though you decided to keep the super duty gas powered? Why is that? Well, this is a great example of us focusing both on the electric future and internal combustion. So this heavy towing hauling, the technology is not quite there yet, but we're such big believers in electrification like with the F150 lightning, which is what I drive every day that we also invested $5.8 billion. We're putting into Kentucky for all new battery plant facility here to power the next generation of our electric vehicles, including pickups. All right, well, ford Pro handling commercial fleets of vehicles. Have you seen commercial demand for the F 1 50 Lightning businesses interested in buying the F 1 50 lightning. Well right now it seems like everybody is interested in buying F 1 50 lightning, but we're really focused on complete solutions for our customers and that's what ford Pro is all about. It's bringing vehicles software, charging service and financing together and make it seamless and easy, especially for those small and medium businesses that need to have it packaged all together in such a bunch of fragmented services and that's where we're going beyond the vehicle and our customers are loving And and ecosystem of solutions that we're doing particularly true with electrics where you need vehicles, software telematics and charging that work together seamlessly. Well, I know the F series lineup for instance, generating more than $40 billion Florida overall. Well, I'd say F series is kind of like the crown jewels, you know, we obsess over our customers. That's why this new truck brings so much new technology so we can help them do their jobs better and they want these heavy engineered capability vehicles that can go on road, off road carry difficult loads and yet for many to be a part of the family. So that is what we invest our time and and that's a $40 billion business. You look at total efforts that series that's kind of like the size of Nike or Starbucks. I know you mentioned 500 new jobs coming to the state of Kentucky to help with the super duty vehicle. What's gonna be the overall impact that you expect for the state of Kentucky? Well, the overall impact of everything that we're doing in tough Kentucky. We have two assembly plants here now and of course there's growing batteries to plant. It's, it's close to $12 billion 12,000 jobs turns in really to 100 and 20,000 effect people that are linked into these assembly plants and all the supply, logistics and support. It's a huge impact in the county and we get great support from the state of Kentucky to work with business and help to create those kind of technical skills and people we need. Okay, thanks to Ted Cannon's Ceo ford pro, ahead of the big announcement tonight, we'll all be waiting.