Ford to build battery assembly plant in Romania

Ford may assemble batteries for electric cars at its vehicle plant in Craiova, Romania. The corresponding assembly line is said to be ready.

The local outlet Economedia, citing local sources, reported the readiness of Ford’s Romanian production site for electric vehicles. This would mean that the final step in battery production, the assembly of the ready-to-install battery packs, would take place directly on the vehicle plant site. Ford is also building a battery assembly plant in Cologne, Germany, to produce the battery packs for the Explorer and Capri. Thus, it would also have been possible to transport fully assembled packs to Craiova.

However, Ford apparently decided in favour of the local assembly. According to Economedia, the cells for the batteries assembled in Craiova are to be manufactured at another location. As reported, these will presumably come from ABEE’s Romvolt factory, which is being built in Galați in eastern Romania.

The new battery assembly centre is said to be at the same location as the motor production, although this has not yet been confirmed, as Ford did not wish to comment on the information when asked by the Romanian publication. Since 2022, the Romanian plant has officially belonged to Ford Otosan, Ford’s Turkey-based joint venture with Koç Holding and others.

What is certain is that Ford will produce three electric models in Craiova: the E-Transit Courier, the E-Tourneo Courier, and the Puma Gen-E. Both the compact electric crossover, the E-Transit Courier panel van, and the E-Tourneo Courier high-roof estate derived from it use the same platform and will utilise the same battery pack with around 55 kWh in their electric versions.

economedia.ro (in Romanian)