Mayor Emanuel Announces City to Make Single-Largest Order of Ford Interceptor Law Enforcement Vehicles
New Sedans and All-Wheel Drive SUVs Will be Manufactured at Torrence Avenue Ford Plant
Mayor Emanuel announced today that the City’s Department of Fleet and Facilities Management (2FM) will make an initial purchase of 100 Ford “Interceptor” sedans and SUVs for the City’s law enforcement fleet. The $3.5 million investment is the initial purchase resulting from an open, online reverse auction for these public safety vehicles.
“When Chicagoans can manufacture automobiles that will keep Chicagoans safe, this City is a better place to live, to work and to raise our families,” said Mayor Emanuel. “In a few months, new law enforcement vehicles will be patrolling our corners, our blocks and our neighborhoods, and hundreds of new jobs that were created will help make that happen. This is what it’s all about.”
Last fall, Ford announced that nearly 2,000 new jobs and a third shift were being created at the Torrence Avenue Ford plant. Two hundred and thirty of those jobs were created specifically to support the production of the new Interceptors. Additional manufacturing and support jobs are expected to be created at the plant over time.
This is the largest order to date of the new Ford Interceptors. The vehicles will be purchased through a Chicago Ford dealership and a Bensenville Ford dealership and all of them will be manufactured at the Ford Torrence Avenue plant. The City expects a number of the vehicles to be on the streets of Chicago by the end of 2012. As a result of the reverse auction, the City expects to purchase 500 Ford Interceptor vehicles over the next five years at a cost of approximately $3.5 million per 100 vehicles. The City maintains an option to purchase more vehicles over the life of the contract depending on funding availability.
Mayor Emanuel has been steadfast in his commitment to helping the Ford plant expand and succeed. His efforts include a multi-department effort to help accommodate the ongoing expansion with approximately $13.6 million in TIF funded improvements, including a Chicago Department of Transportation project at 130th and Torrence Avenue to help minimize traffic issues as well as site planning for Ford's purchase of land for a new parking area.
Mayor Emanuel has been working with Ford to discuss the company’s employment needs over the past several years, and since he took office has worked actively to ensure that Chicago receives a sizeable increase in jobs.
“I am pleased that Ford is making this additional investment in Chicago and creating high-paying jobs for the City’s hard-working, dedicated workforce,” Mayor Emanuel said at the time of the Ford jobs announcement. “Ford’s increased presence in Chicago bolsters our economic competitiveness and demonstrates that Chicago is a city on the move where businesses are growing and creating new opportunity.”
Prior to the new third shift, the plant produced the Ford Taurus, Ford SHO, and Lincoln MKS vehicles. In addition to the new manufacturing jobs at the plant, several hundred additional jobs will be created across the street from the Ford facility as part of Ford’s only North American supplier park, which will grow to support the third shift.
1,266 cars per day are manufactured at the Torrence Avenue Ford plant, one every 58 seconds. Opened in 1924, the plant is the oldest continuously-running Ford plant in the United States.
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