After adding thousands of new jobs and renovating its Kansas City Assembly Plant, Ford is finally ready to begin production of its full-size 2015 Transit van, which is set to arrive in showrooms this summer.
Ford Motor could exceed its commitment to hire 12,000 people by the end of 2015.
“There is a high probability we will surpass that number,” Joe Hinrichs, Ford president of the Americas, said in an interview.
Hinrichs is at Ford’s retooled Kansas City plant, at Claycomo, Mo., today where almost 5,000 employees have started assembly of the 2015 Ford Transit that is being built and sold in the U.S. for the first time. The workforce includes an additional 2,000 employees, most of them new hires, to add a third crew to the plant.
Ford has invested $1.1 billion to add production of the full-size commercial van now and to prepare for production of the 2015 F-150 full-size pickup next year.
In 2014 alone, Ford will hire nearly 5,000 hourly and salaried employees in the U.S. to support overall growth. Hinrichs said how many more jobs are created will depend on demand for Ford products.