Changan Ford lays foundation on new $600m factory in Chongqing

Changan Ford has officially laid the foundation for its third factory in Chongqing today, wccdaily.com.cn reported. The joint venture has reportedly invested nearly $600 million in the site, which will help boost its passenger automobile production output in the country by 350,000 units.

Ford Chief Executive Alan Mullaly has already commented that Ford's global operations will be centered around China in the future. The manufacturer hopes to sell eight million vehicles worldwide by 2015. Its production sites in Chongqing will play an important role in helping Ford achieve that goal. To date, Ford has invested over 20 billion yuan ($3.16b) in developing production facilities in the city. Ford has plans to manufacture a total of 950,000 automobiles, 800,000 engines and one million transmission units in the city annually. Chongqing looks set to become home to the manufacturer's largest production sites outside of its home state of Michigan.

The factory will employ state-of-the-art green technology that will keep water, electricity and chemical usage at a minimum, while reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Its first vehicle is scheduled to roll off the production lines in the latter half of 2014. The Ecoboost engine-equipped Kuga (pictured) and EcoSport SUVs are both scheduled to be manufactured at the site.