One year on from its closure, Alex Grant reflects on the global importance of Ford’s engine plant, and how it could continue to root automotive R&D in South Wales.
On 25 September 2020 the production lines at Ford’s 60-acre Bridgend Engine Plant fell silent for the last time. Once a lynchpin of the carmaker’s global manufacturing operation, a decade of rapid technical, regulatory and – locally at least – political change had pushed the site outside of a company-wide re-structuring plan. But its 41-year history had put South Wales firmly on the automotive map.
The factory had been strategically important from the start. Its machinery whirred into life in September 1979, building four-cylinder ‘CVH’ petrol engines for the then-new Mk3 Escort, which was a cornerstone of Ford’s European sales. Bridgend would go on to build three capacities – 1.1, 1.3 and 1.6-litre – for some of the region’s most popular vehicles, before moving on to the equally crucial Zetec fuel injection units from 1991.
As Ford expanded, Bridgend reaped the benefits. South Wales became an engine hub for the newly formed Premier Automotive Group (PAG), winning a contract to build V8s for Jaguar shortly after the company was acquired in 1990, and volumes grew. By 2001, it had built 10 million engines and had a reputation for flexibility and efficiency that had earned a £245m investment to expand even further as Volvo and Land Rover entered the PAG fold.
When the last of the original Zetec engines left Bridgend in 2004, the facility had grown from building three closely related four-cylinder engines for Ford’s own products, to a line-up spanning the full diverseity of its global model range. It employed a workforce of 2,000, making four-cylinder 1.25-litre engines for compact European cars, through to Volvo’s new 3.2-litre all-aluminium inline six, and 4.2 and 4.4-litre V8 engines for Jaguar and Land Rover. Such was the flexibility that the six and eight-cylinder units could be built seamlessly on a single line.
The automotive landscape was favourable too. American customers had become more accepting of smaller capacity petrol engines, and Ford continued to task Welsh workers with building them. In 2008, the company set out investment to bring its new 1.6-litre, direct-injection, turbocharged ‘EcoBoost’ engine to South Wales, alongside the naturally aspirated Duratec units already on the line. When Ford highlighted its world car strategy with a 15,000-mile America-to-Australia tour in a Fiesta In 2010, Bridgend wasn’t just a stop on the route. It had built the engine under the globe-trotting car’s bonnet.
Besides product, the site itself was ahead of the curve. The 25,000m2 rooftop solar array was claimed to be a world first in 1998, and the 77-metre wind turbine installed in 2014 offered further CO2 reductions. It was also one of the first Ford sites to achieve zero waste to landfill status in the mid-2010s, showcasing that high volume didn’t have to come at an environmental cost.
The 20 millionth Bridgend-built engine left the line in 2016, by which point the 2,200-strong workforce was manufacturing 700,000 per year with 80% exported to sites all over the world. It had attracted Welsh Government funding for training, and yet more investment in state-of-the-art tooling for the new 1.5-litre ‘Dragon’ turbocharged petrol engine. Production began in 2018.
Unfortunately, operating conditions had become trickier. Volvo began transitioning to modular three and four-cylinder engines in 2014, which killed off the 3.2-litre inline-six, then in 2017 Jaguar Land Rover announced that it would bring its powertrain manufacturing in-house within three years. Bridgend became under-utilised as European demand for the 1.5-litre EcoBoost had begun to wane, and Ford was developing plans to streamline its global operations – including a shift to electrification – with a tight focus on cost.
In turn, in June 2019, Bridgend was named as one of six European plants which would be sold or closed, affecting a combined 12,000 jobs across the region. Stuart Rowley, president, Ford of Europe, said the backdrop had become difficult: “We are committed to the U.K.; however, changing customer demand and cost disadvantages, plus an absence of additional engine models for Bridgend going forward make the plant economically unsustainable in the years ahead,” he explained.
Bridgend would build its final Ford engine in February 2020, leaving a reduced workforce to continue with Jaguar Land Rover V8s through a difficult spring and summer of Covid-19 restrictions and shutdowns. Of the 1,644 staff, Welsh Government data suggests 50 were relocated within Ford, while 120 stayed on to decommission the site.
However, the whir of the automotive industry might not be absent for long. The Welsh Government launched a taskforce in 2019, chaired by WMW honorary life member and renowned Ford engineer Richard Parry-Jones, aimed at supporting the region. This includes a £2m fund for automotive R&D administered by the Welsh Government, which will seek to attract next-generation technology expertise to Bridgend. The landscape remains tricky, but Bridgend’s most important role could still be ahead.
The factory had been strategically important from the start. Its machinery whirred into life in September 1979, building four-cylinder ‘CVH’ petrol engines for the then-new Mk3 Escort, which was a cornerstone of Ford’s European sales. Bridgend would go on to build three capacities – 1.1, 1.3 and 1.6-litre – for some of the region’s most popular vehicles, before moving on to the equally crucial Zetec fuel injection units from 1991.
As Ford expanded, Bridgend reaped the benefits. South Wales became an engine hub for the newly formed Premier Automotive Group (PAG), winning a contract to build V8s for Jaguar shortly after the company was acquired in 1990, and volumes grew. By 2001, it had built 10 million engines and had a reputation for flexibility and efficiency that had earned a £245m investment to expand even further as Volvo and Land Rover entered the PAG fold.
When the last of the original Zetec engines left Bridgend in 2004, the facility had grown from building three closely related four-cylinder engines for Ford’s own products, to a line-up spanning the full diverseity of its global model range. It employed a workforce of 2,000, making four-cylinder 1.25-litre engines for compact European cars, through to Volvo’s new 3.2-litre all-aluminium inline six, and 4.2 and 4.4-litre V8 engines for Jaguar and Land Rover. Such was the flexibility that the six and eight-cylinder units could be built seamlessly on a single line.
The automotive landscape was favourable too. American customers had become more accepting of smaller capacity petrol engines, and Ford continued to task Welsh workers with building them. In 2008, the company set out investment to bring its new 1.6-litre, direct-injection, turbocharged ‘EcoBoost’ engine to South Wales, alongside the naturally aspirated Duratec units already on the line. When Ford highlighted its world car strategy with a 15,000-mile America-to-Australia tour in a Fiesta In 2010, Bridgend wasn’t just a stop on the route. It had built the engine under the globe-trotting car’s bonnet.
Besides product, the site itself was ahead of the curve. The 25,000m2 rooftop solar array was claimed to be a world first in 1998, and the 77-metre wind turbine installed in 2014 offered further CO2 reductions. It was also one of the first Ford sites to achieve zero waste to landfill status in the mid-2010s, showcasing that high volume didn’t have to come at an environmental cost.
The 20 millionth Bridgend-built engine left the line in 2016, by which point the 2,200-strong workforce was manufacturing 700,000 per year with 80% exported to sites all over the world. It had attracted Welsh Government funding for training, and yet more investment in state-of-the-art tooling for the new 1.5-litre ‘Dragon’ turbocharged petrol engine. Production began in 2018.
Unfortunately, operating conditions had become trickier. Volvo began transitioning to modular three and four-cylinder engines in 2014, which killed off the 3.2-litre inline-six, then in 2017 Jaguar Land Rover announced that it would bring its powertrain manufacturing in-house within three years. Bridgend became under-utilised as European demand for the 1.5-litre EcoBoost had begun to wane, and Ford was developing plans to streamline its global operations – including a shift to electrification – with a tight focus on cost.
In turn, in June 2019, Bridgend was named as one of six European plants which would be sold or closed, affecting a combined 12,000 jobs across the region. Stuart Rowley, president, Ford of Europe, said the backdrop had become difficult: “We are committed to the U.K.; however, changing customer demand and cost disadvantages, plus an absence of additional engine models for Bridgend going forward make the plant economically unsustainable in the years ahead,” he explained.
Bridgend would build its final Ford engine in February 2020, leaving a reduced workforce to continue with Jaguar Land Rover V8s through a difficult spring and summer of Covid-19 restrictions and shutdowns. Of the 1,644 staff, Welsh Government data suggests 50 were relocated within Ford, while 120 stayed on to decommission the site.
However, the whir of the automotive industry might not be absent for long. The Welsh Government launched a taskforce in 2019, chaired by WMW honorary life member and renowned Ford engineer Richard Parry-Jones, aimed at supporting the region. This includes a £2m fund for automotive R&D administered by the Welsh Government, which will seek to attract next-generation technology expertise to Bridgend. The landscape remains tricky, but Bridgend’s most important role could still be ahead.
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