Ford to build next Explorer at Chicago Assembly

Ford Motor and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn are scheduled to hold a press conference on Tuesday morning to announce 1,200 jobs will be added at the company’s Chicago Assembly Plant to build the new Explorer SUV, a person briefed on the matter said Monday.




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Both the governor and Ford executives will attend, the source said. A Ford spokeswoman declined to comment.

“Tomorrow, in one day, we’re going to get 1,200 new jobs for Illinois,” Quinn said at a breakfast today, according to the Associated Press.

The new Explorer will be built on the same frame as the Taurus sedan, which also is built at the Chicago plant, said Haig Stoddard, an automotive analyst with IHS Global Insight, who said he learned of Ford’s plans through multiple industry sources.

Ford currently builds the Explorer at its Louisville Assembly Plant, but that plant will soon be converted into a small car plant.

The original Ford Explorer debuted in 1990 as a 1991 model, and it replaced the Bronco II in Ford’s lineup. At the height of its sales in 2000, 445,157 Explorers were sold, according to Ward’s automotive data. But that same year, the Explorer was subject to a massive recall due to rollover problems tied to its Firestone tires. And since then volatile fuel prices have diminished the American public’s love affair with SUVs.

In 2009, Ford sold just 52,190 Explorers, a 33.5% drop from 2008 — outperforming the mid-size SUV segment, which declined 45.7% in 2009, according to Autodata Corp., but still a shadow of its earlier sales dominance.

In its new form as a more car-like crossover, the Explorer will compete in a crowded field ranging from the Toyota Highlander to the Chevrolet Traverse.

“It won’t sell like the Explorer used to, but it should still be a profitable vehicle for them,” said Stoddard, who estimates that sales will top 130,000 annually.

Ford has said very little about what the new Explorer will look like but has confirmed that it will build Explorer off of a car platform but will still give it adequate towing capacity for 80% of Ford’s consumers.

The last time Ford provided a glimpse of its next generation Explorer was in 2008 when it showed a concept called Explorer America at the 2008 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

At this year’s auto show in Detroit, J Mays, Ford’s vice president of design, said the design of the Explorer has changed since then.

“Don’t expect the Explorer America concept,” Mays said. “It doesn’t look exactly like that.”

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