Ford Motor Co.'s Silverton Assembly Plant in Pretoria on Tuesday launched production of the next-generation of the Ranger pickup truck, becoming the third plant in the world to do so following a $1 billion investment in the Dearborn automaker's South Africa operations.
Underscoring Ranger's popularity around the world, Ford now has three production hubs building the next-gen model for global export: the Silverton plant, as well as two plants in Thailand. Operations in Vietnam and Cambodia also will build the truck, and plants in the U.S. and Argentina will start production on it next year.
The South Africa operations assemble the truck for the local market as well as exporting it to more than 100 markets, including Europe. The more than $1 billion investment in South Africa Ford announced last year helped expand the automaker's operations there, including the addition of 1,200 new jobs to support a third shift at the Silverton plant and a boost in production to some 200,000 units annually. The new jobs bring Ford's workforce in the country to 5,500 people.
