Ford has revealed it is investing an additional £190 million at its Dagenham London site to produce an all-new range of 2.0-litre diesel engines for cars and commercial vehicles. The new investment includes £8.9 million from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund. Ford says it is creating 318 new jobs as a result of this latest investment.

The announcement confirms the second phase of investment in the new engine programme following the original investment of £287 million for phase one. This brings the total invested in the project to in excess of £475 million.

The diesel engines have been designed and developed at Ford Dagenham and at the Ford Dunton Technical Centre in Essex.

Ford expects the first ‘phase one’ engines to come off the line towards the end of next year. Production capacity will be up to 350,000 units per year – one engine produced every 30 seconds – and will be installed in Ford commercial vehicles from 2016.

Ford says the new engine will deliver dramatically lower NOx emissions and satisfy the air quality requirements of the London Mayor’s proposed Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), which comes into effect in 2020.

The second phase of engine production is scheduled to start in 2017, with the first installation in Ford cars planned for 2018. The added capacity of up to 150,000 units for this phase will bring the total annual capacity for the new engine range to up to half a million units.

This latest diesel engine programme at Ford Dagenham is part of a £1.5 billion investment by Ford in low-carbon and more environmentally friendly engine and vehicle technology over five years.

Ford produces engines at two locations in the UK, petrol engines from Ford Bridgend in Wales and diesel engines at Ford Dagenham. Total production from the two plants exceeded 1.5 million engines in 2013.

Source: Ford

Tags: engine design, Ford Bridgend, Ford Dagenham, Ford Dunton Technical Centre, ULEZ, Ultra Low Emission Zone