Ford Motor Co. said it will add 5,000 jobs in the United States and launch 23 new vehicles globally in the upcoming year.
"Next year, we are embarking on our most ambitious global launch year ever" said Raj Nair, group vice president for global product development.
In North America, the automaker will introduce 16 vehicles, including the Ford Transit and Transit Connect commercial vans.
Production of the full-size Transit will begin during the second quarter of 2014 at the Kansas City, Mo., assembly plant. The company is investing $1.1 billion to retool and expand the facility for Transit output and will add more than 2,000 jobs — including more than 1,000 new hires — to support production of the Transit and F-150 pickup, which also is built there.
Globally, Ford in 2014 will open three new manufacturing facilities — two in the Asia Pacific region and one in South America.
In China, Ford plans to open a third vehicle assembly plant along with a transmission factory. The vehicle assembly plan will increase production capacity in the country by 300,000 units, Ford said. The manufacturer also plans to open an engine factory in Brazil.
"This is the fastest and most aggressive manufacturing expansion the company has undergone in 50 years," said John Fleming, executive vice president for global manufacturing. "The last time Ford was growing like this, Dwight D. Eisenhower was the U.S. president."
Ford plans to hire more than 6,000 employees in Asia next year, the vast majority of them hourly employees. In the United States, the company expects to create more than 5,000 jobs, including 3,300 salaried positions. In the past two years, Ford said it has created more than 14,000 jobs in North America.
More than 80% of the new salaried employees will work in product development, manufacturing, quality and information technology, Ford said.
