St. Thomas Assembly

St. Thomas Assembly was an automobile plant located in Southwold, Ontario, Canada, close to the Talbotville community and to the nearby city of St. Thomas. The 2,600,000 sq ft (240,000 m2) facility, situated on a 635 acres (2.57 km2) site,[1] opened in 1967, building the Ford Falcon.[2] Flexible fuel vehicles (FFV) capable of operating on ethanol fuel were manufactured there during the later years of the assembly plant.[2] Ford's plans for sustainability and reduction of fossil fuel consumption relied on the St. Thomas Plant and its Lincoln Town Car vehicles for years.[1] It also produced the final Mercury vehicle, a Mercury Grand Marquis, after Ford decided to discontinue the Mercury brand after the 2011 model year.

St. Thomas Assembly Plant
Former site of the St. Thomas Assembly manufacturing plant
Built1967
LocationSouthwold, Ontario
IndustryAutomotive
ProductsFord Panther platform
Employees1,590
Area2,600,000 sq ft (240,000 m2)
Address11920-11968 Sunset Rd
Southwold, Ontario
Defunct2011

The plant closed September 15, 2011. The last Crown Victoria built by the remaining 300 employees was sent to Saudi Arabia.[3]

Decommissioning did not start until mid-2015.[4] The plant had been largely demolished by the end of 2016, with only the wastewater treatment facility left standing as of February 2017.[5] An initial proposal to have the site developed as a solar farm fell through when regulatory approval was not obtained,[5] but decommissioning was completed in 2019, with the property becoming available for sale.[6]

Products

In total, over 8 million vehicles were produced by St. Thomas Assembly from 1967 to 2011.[7] Alongside the vehicles of the Ford Panther platform, St. Thomas also produced the Ford Falcon, Ford Maverick, Ford Pinto (Mercury Bobcat), Ford Fairmont (Mercury Zephyr), and Ford Escort EXP (Mercury LN7).

Ford
│
1965
│
1970
│
1975
│
1980
│
1985
│
1990
│
1995
│
2000
│
2005
│
2010
│
2015

Mercury
Mercury Zephyr
LN7
│
1965
│
1970
│
1975
│
1980
│
1985
│
1990
│
1995
│
2000
│
2005
│
2010
│
2015

Lincoln
│
1965
│
1970
│
1975
│
1980
│
1985
│
1990
│
1995
│
2000
│
2005
│
2010
│
2015

References
  1. "Plant Information". Media.Ford.com. Retrieved 2009-05-16.
  2. "Ford St. Thomas Assembly Plant begins production". Media.Ford.com. January 10, 2008. Retrieved 2009-05-16.
  3. "Ontario Ford plant closure brings tears". CTV. September 16, 2011. Archived from the original on September 18, 2011.
  4. "Quantum Murray awarded decommissioning contract at Ontario Ford assembly plant". Construction & Demolition Recycling. June 18, 2015.
  5. Bierman, Jennifer (February 17, 2017). "Two suitors kicking tires on former Ford site". St. Thomas Times-Journal.
  6. DeClerq, Katherine (January 15, 2019). "'Light at the end of the tunnel': How an Ontario city got through auto-plant closure". CTV News. Toronto.
  7. The Crown Victoria: Southwestern Ontario?s roadmaster, London Free Press, June 4, 2017

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.