Picture: AutoBlog

Big plans are being made for the future of the Flat Rock plant in Detroit. The Ford Mustang used to share the plant with the Mazda6 and with those two alone, it wasn’t enough to keep the workflow busy. Plans for the future consist of producing the next-gen Ford Taurus and the Lincoln MKS mid-sized sedans that will bring more jobs to Flat Rock. This transition will employ up to 1,400 people and also provide security. The exact number of people to be hired isn’t known just yet, but that should be a close guess. Workers already laid off will likely get dibs on the new positions.

This will drastically change things from a year ago since the workers building the Ford Mustang and the Mazda6 had trouble keeping busy. This year on August 24th Mazda pulled the plug in Detroit and decided to resume production in Japan. Everyone feared that the former AutoAlliance International plant was in jeopardy and might be sold off completely.

Ford announced that they are going to spend $555 million to make sure that the plant is equipped to make vehicles consisting of three different platforms. The Mustang will still be made in Michigan as promised. UAW is hoping to add the Fusion’s cousin, the Lincoln MKS to the lineup for the next generation model. It was said that Detroit might be home to some or maybe even complete production of the Taurus. The Fusion might be added as soon as February.

As it stands now, the Chicago plant produces the Taurus and MKS as well as the Explorer and the interceptor police vehicles in such models. With just those vehicles being produced, three shifts of workers are needed. Currently only one shift is running at Flat Rock.