Ford Bridgend Engine Plant


The Ford Bridgend Engine Plant is a manufacturing facility of Ford of Europe, located in Bridgend, Wales.

Construction

After signing an investment deal with the Welsh Development Agency, construction was started on the greenfield site in 1977. The plant began production in 1980, and currently specialises in producing high-efficiency petrol engines. Its first product was the CVH engine used in the then new third generation European Escort of that year.

Production

The plant currently produces the following Ford products:
have a plant-within-a-plant at Bridgend, which saved considerable investment costs by JLR. Staffed by workers dedicated to Jaguar production of the AJ-V8 engine, it includes a linked flow-line of computer numerically controlled machines with automated loading and assembly. Component supply is on a just-in-time manufacturing basis. JLR will move the production of its engines to its new Wolverhampton plant by 2020.

Future

The plant currently produces 750,000 engines per annum. Volvo-badged production ended in March 2015, and Jaguar-Land Rover products are scheduled to move completely to their own Wolverhampton plant by 2020, production at the plant is projected by Ford of Europe to fall to around 250,000.
In March 2015, Ford of Europe made the recommendation to Ford HQ in Detroit to build the new "Dragon" designed petrol engines at Bridgend, after a review of options across plants in: Valencia, Spain; Cologne, Germany; and Craiova, Romania. The required investment is being backed with an additional £15 million investment grant by the Welsh Government. In January 2019, plans were leaked for 990 job losses at the plant by 2021. In June 2019, trade union sources that Ford was planning to close the plant in September 2020. On 1 July 2019 the taskforce setup to support the ex-employees held its first meeting.

Former products

The plant formerly produced the following products: