CAW Hopes New Ford V8 to Get in Other Models

Ford has a brand new V8 engine which was presented on the Mustang GT model. The powerplant will be built in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, at its Essex Engine plant. This decision is of great importance for the Canadian Auto Workers union, which hopes that production of the new engine will increase as time passes and that the engine will be fitted on other models.

The Windsor plant has been closed by Ford since 2007, while the decision to start production on the new V8 here came as a result of the contract talks the automaker had with CAW in October.

Once the production starts, Ford will rehire 200 workers for one shift in order to build the V8. Ken Lewenza, the president of CAW, hopes that Ford will decide to put the engine in more models, so more shifts will be added.

"We've put a lot of effort into convincing Ford to maximize that engine in that plant, so this is the start, hopefully, of better things to come," Reuters quoted Ken Lewenza as saying.

When the plant closed down in 2007, Ford had to layoff 1,000 workers. Unfortunately, Windsor has the highest unemployment rate of any major Canadian city. Lewenza says that the new 5.0 liter V8 engine offering 412 HP and 390 lb-ft (529 Nm) of torque could be used on the F-150.

"That's one of the vehicles that Ford has identified as a possibility," he said, adding that Ford has not made any final decisions.