Ford Reopens Oakville Plant for Super Duty Trucks, Honda Invests $867 Million

Ford has reopened its assembly plant in Oakville, Ont., to build F-Series Super Duty pickup trucks, and Honda announced an $867 million investment at its plant in Alliston, Ont., according to The Globe and Mail. Both moves come while the United States charges tariffs of 25 per cent on cars made in Canada.

About 2,000 people are back at work at the Ford plant, which closed for retooling in 2024. The trucks are already shipping to dealers in Canada and the United States, even though the official launch is later in November.

What Ford is building in Oakville

The plant has an annual capacity of 100,000 units and builds heavy-duty versions of Ford’s top-selling pickups, among them the F-250 and F-350, powered by diesel or gasoline. Hybrid and extended-range electric trucks are planned too. The plant built 3,488 trucks in October, according to Citi Research analyst Michael Ward, who said Ford is set to make more than one million F-Series trucks in 2026.

Until mid-2024 the plant assembled the Ford Edge. Ford first meant to convert it to electric vehicles and battery packs, then postponed and finally dropped that plan as EV demand in the U.S. cooled. Ford says it has invested $5 billion at the plant, in addition to a $464 million grant from the federal government.

Some of the 7.3-litre V-8 gasoline engines come from Ford’s Essex plant in Windsor, Ont., which raised output after the automaker put in US$500 million. Mexico supplies the diesels. Alicia Boler Davis, president of Ford Pro, the work-truck division, said Oakville will also cover for U.S. plants that are due to pause for upgrades.

Honda’s investment in Alliston

Honda said Monday it will spend $166 million to bring its engine shop in Ontario back online and retool the plant for refreshed hybrid-electric and gasoline models. That is part of the $867 million total. The federal and Ontario governments are contributing $313 million and $156 million.

Honda said the money keeps 4,000 jobs at the plant. Output of the CR-V and Civic tops 400,000, and much of it goes to the United States. The engine shop had been shut since 2024. Honda has just passed 40 years of building cars in Canada, where it is the second-biggest producer by volume.

What it means for workers and buyers

In recent contract talks, Ford and the Unifor union agreed that every laid-off Oakville worker will be recalled by next July. Unifor had 3,200 members at the plant when it shut. The union represents more than 5,150 Canadian Ford workers. By the end of the three-year deal, full-rate production workers will earn $50.20 an hour and skilled trades employees $62.71. The contract also carries over a ban on closures at Ford facilities and a pledge to add a third shift at the Windsor engine plant, likely by 2029.

Base models of the trucks range in price from $62,000 to $128,400, and the margins are high, the paper reported. Ford can therefore take on part of the tariff cost, though some is expected to reach buyers. Fraser Johnson, a business professor at Western University, called it “a good news story.”

The industry puts U.S. content in Canadian-built cars at about 50 per cent on average, which works out to an effective tariff rate of about 12.5 per cent.

The tariff backdrop

President Donald Trump says the tariffs are meant to push production into the U.S. The industry across North America, Detroit-based companies included, opposes them as an unneeded cost.

Other automakers cut back in Canada. General Motors idled its electric van plant in Ingersoll, Ont., and laid off more than 1,000 people. The Globe and Mail reported that Stellantis is expected to announce this week that it sold its Brampton, Ont., plant, idle since 2023, to the defence contractor Roshel Inc.

Brendan Sweeney, head of the Pacific Manufacturing Association of Canada, said Honda’s plants keep running because of strong demand. “They’re not in a position to stop production,” he said.

Source: The Globe and Mail