(LBF) -- Ford Motor Co. is planning to boost production of the Louisville-made Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator this summer as consumer demand for the vehicles has grown.
The company will add 550 jobs at the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville to accommodate the production increase, but these won't be new positions. Instead the company is moving 550 workers from its other local facility, the Louisville Assembly Plant, as we previously reported. The production increase is expected to take place in late July.
This is the second time Ford has increased SUV production by 20 percent at this plant (it made a similar announcement last February). Ford officials discussed the need for an increase during a conference call and media event on Monday. Ford produced 49,883 Expeditions in 2017 and 75,826 Expeditions in 2018. It produced 11,927 Navigators in 2017 and 24,537 Navigators in 2018.
The company has been constrained by the available capacity of the Ford Expedition in particular, said Matt VanDyke, Ford director, U.S. marketing. Dealers have been wanting more of the vehicles. Retail sales of the Expedition SUV increased 35 percent between 2017 and 2018 to more than 40,000 vehicles sold. It also grew market share by 5.6 percentage points in the large SUV category.