July 5 (SeeNews) - Turkey's Ford Otosan plans to hire 600 at the Craiova assembly plant in southern Romania, prime minister Nicolae Ciuca said on Tuesday without giving a timeframe for the new hires.
"[...] We support all these steps which fit in very well with the government's efforts to protect the national economy and jobs," prime minister Ciuca said after a ceremony marking the transfer of Ford Romania's ownership from U.S. Ford Motor Company to Ford Otosan.
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Ford Otosan and representatives of the Romanian government also discussed the development of a network of charging stations for electric vehicles. "The government committed under the National Resilience and Recovery Plan, PNRR, that by the end of 2026, it will build 18,000 charging stations, of which 13,000 will by financed by the EU and 5,000 by the state budget," Ciuca added.
Ford Otosan said on Friday that it plans to invest 490 million euro ($504 million) over the next three years in the Craiova plant and increase production to 272,000 vehicles per year from 250,000 units.
In March, Ford Motor Company announced it will transfer the ownership of the Craiova assembly plant to its strategic partner Ford Otosan and in June the European Commission approved the deal.
Ford also said in March that the Puma model will receive a fully electric version from 2024, which will be manufactured at the Craiova plant, and that the production of the Ford EcoSport small class SUV will cease by the end of this year as the Craiova plant will focus more and more on on the production of commercial and electric vehicles. A compact multifunctional vehicle, Tourneo Courier, will also be produced in Craiova in 2023, with a fully electric version to be launched in production in 2024, according to the company's announcement in March.
Ford entered Romania in March 2008 when it completed the acquisition of a 72.4% stake in Automobile Craiova, the sole owner of car maker and distributor Daewoo Automobile Romania.
The auto manufacturer is manufacturing the Puma and EcoSport models, as well as the EcoBoost 1.0 l engine in Romania, employing over 6,000 people.
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