Ford boosts Dagenham with clean diesel engine investment

The Ford plant at Dagenham is getting a jobs boost with news that Ford is investing £190 million in its UK home plant to produce new clean diesel engines.

There was a time when Ford’s plant at Dagenham was the Ford car production powerhouse in Europe, but those days are long gone and all the Dagenham does now is make engines.

But after a period of contraction in the UK – including the loss of Transit production in Southampton – Ford has decided to boost its presence in the UK with a £190 million investment in Dagenham – including £8.9 million from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund – to produce a new range of 2.0 litre clean diesel engines for vans and cars.

This is part two of an investment programme by Ford to build new diesel engines with lower NOx emissions that will satisfy London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone limits due to come in force in 2020, with part one of the funding aimed at engines for commercial vehicles and this new investment for passenger cars.

The new diesel engines for commercial vehicles will start to roll out of Dagenham towards the end of 2015 and the second phase for passenger cars in 2017, with the investment yielding an additional 500,000 engines a year when it’s finished rolling out, and adding 318 new jobs.

Stephen Odell, Ford VP for Europe, said:

Ford is delighted to announce this next phase of investment at Dagenham. The overall investment of over £475 million, supported by the UK Government, underlines Ford’s commitment to the UK. This all-new, state-of-the-art, low carbon diesel engine has not only been designed and developed here it will be manufactured by Ford in the UK too. And it will be great for UK plc as these engines will be exported to markets around the world.

Ford already produces 1.5 million engines a year at Dagenham (diesel) and Bridgend (petrol), and this new investment guarantees the continuation of engine building in the UK.