New electric vehicle centre paves way to the future

For more than 90 years, the cars we have produced at our Cologne plant, in Germany, have enabled freedom of mobility for many millions of people.

Now, we are opening a hi-tech production facility to build a new generation of electric passenger vehicles as part of a $2 billion investment. This represents a major vote of confidence in skilled German manufacturing jobs and the future of automotive production in Europe.

The electric Explorer will be the first vehicle to roll off the brand‑new production line at the Ford Cologne Electric Vehicle Center that will also offer battery assembly and state‑of‑the‑art tooling and automation.

Our first carbon neutral assembly plant will enable an annual production capacity of 250,000 vehicles and is an important milestone on the Road to Better, including the commitment to carbon neutrality across our entire European footprint of facilities, logistics and direct suppliers by 2035.

 
Innovations introduced at the Ford Cologne Electric Vehicle Center will include self-learning machines, autonomous transport systems and big data management that will improve the efficiency of the production processes, get better over time, and assure high quality.
 
New cognitive and collaborative robots, and augmented reality solutions will support employees and increase efficiencies as well as data exchange with other plants.

¹ Once fully operational, Ford Cologne’s EV Center will be independently certified as carbon neutral. This independent certification will be audited and reconciled on a regular basis against purchasing high quality carbon offsets for any remaining emissions.

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