Ford to extend UK Transit van production
Wednesday 31 March 2010 Back to Blog
Those interested in leasing a UK-made van will be interested to hear that Ford has announced it will extend production of the Transit at its Southampton plant into 2012.
The manufacturer had originally planned to wind-up production of the panel van at the plant in 2011, transferring operations to Turkey.
But that schedule has had to be pushed back, the BBC reports.
A Ford spokesperson told the news provider: "The plan remains the same at Southampton but we are unsure when the next generation of Transit will come in which pushes production of the current panel vans beyond 2011 at the site."
However, once the move abroad is made, Ford will begin producing a chassis cab version of the Transit in the UK, ensuring jobs at the plant are not affected.
"Ford has outlined a multi-million pound investment plan for Southampton as lead plant for the chassis cab variants of the next model," the spokesperson said.
The Transit has been the best-selling light commercial vehicle in Europe for 40 years.