Ford’s Halewood plant has achieved a significant milestone with the start of production of its new eDrive units. These electric power units, critical to Ford’s electrification strategy, will power the electric versions of Ford’s best-selling car in Europe the Puma and the Transit Custom.
The Halewood facility now has the capacity to produce 420,000 eDrive units annually that will power Ford’s ambitious electrification goals. By 2025, Ford will have nine electric vehicles on the road across Europe.
The Puma Gen-E joins the Explorer, Capri, Mustang Mach-E and E-Tourneo Courier to complete Ford’s European electric car offering, along with the E-Transit, E-Transit Courier, E-Transit Custom and E-Tourneo Custom commercial vehicles supplied by Ford Pro.
The new all-electric Puma Gen-E was unveiled on Tuesday and will be powered by the eDrive units built at Halewood and assembled at Ford Otosan’s plant in Craiova. The electric Puma Gen-E reenergises the fun to drive character and evolves the distinctive Puma exterior design that has made the compact crossover a hit with customers across Europe.
Thanks to the eDrive, the Puma driving experience delivers exceptional efficiency of 13.1 kWh/100 km. Puma Gen-E offers up to 376 km on a full charge so that long journeys are well within reach, while up to 523 km of city range means days of charge-free urban trips.
“Ford is a global American brand with deep roots in Europe, and Halewood has been a cornerstone of that legacy for 60 years. It’s our first in-house electric vehicle component manufacturing site in Europe with the state-of-the-art technology following the £380 million investment to transform Halewood from a traditional transmission’s facility into a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant,” said Kieran Cahill, Ford’s European Industrial Operations Vice-President.
