LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Standing in the shade of a tree on the front lawn of Ford Motor Co.'s Kentucky Truck Plant, Tom Huber paused from his food truck lunch to glance at one of the two 2023 F-Series Super Duty pickups that were rolled out to provide visuals for a corporate celebration Wednesday.
The truck was an F-350 bound for Canada with an "antimatter blue" paint job and a sticker price of $119,379.
"That thing right there, that's the workhorse of America," said Huber, a longtime carpenter who is one of the roughly 8,000 hourly workers at the plant, known as KTP. "America runs on pickup trucks; every industry out there, from an electrician to a plumber to a farmer ... And we build the best one."
Even as Ford plows billions into electric vehicles, the Detroit automaker is also doubling down on its cash cow, the large pickups made at Kentucky Truck Plant, or KTP.
Ford CEO Jim Farley speaks outside Kentucky Truck Plant on May 24, 2023. (Chris Otts, WDRB News)
Ford CEO Jim Farley reiterated that message on Wednesday as he, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and UAW officials participated in a concert-like event to mark the launch of Ford's 2023 Super Duty, the first model year in a new lifecycle for the big trucks.
Even as Ford is eager to tout the popularity of its F-150 Lightning electric truck, the larger, gas-powered Super Duty vehicles have a long lifespan ahead, and customers who use them are "not going to go electric anytime soon," Farley told reporters following the event.
"States like California have effectively outlawed the Super Duty by 2030 and we're really concerned about that," Farley said. "The work cycle that these trucks go through, it does not lend itself to electric. If you're pulling a fifth-wheel in Montana, an electric truck is a really bad solution."
In fact, the profits from the Super Duty and F-150 trucks are helping to underwrite Ford's foray into electrification, including the $5.6 billion EV battery campus under construction 66 miles south in Glendale, Kentucky.
"This is our most profitable plant globally," Farley said, referring to KTP.
Ford assembled 293,065 Super Duty trucks — which refers to the F-250 through F-550 — at KTP last year, where workers also build two large SUVs, the Expedition and Lincoln Navigator.
It began building the redesigned 2023 Super Duty in January, the first overhaul of the vehicle since 2017.
It is the company's "most important (vehicle) launch this year," said Ted Cannis, CEO of Ford's "Pro" division that serves commercial customers, at an investor event Monday.
"The new model has been redesigned inside and out with unprecedented levels of technology and work capability … plus more towing, payload, torque and horsepower than any heavy duty size truck on the market," Cannis said.
Ford said last year that it would spend $700 million on equipment upgrades at KTP and add 500 full-time jobs at the plant to enable the vehicle.
Keith Downey, an auditor at Ford's Kentucky Truck Plant, inspects a freshly assembly Super Duty pickup on May 24, 2023. (Chris Otts, WDRB News)
Kentucky Truck's employment has swelled by thousands over the last decade, a fact not lost on Keith Downey, a 30-year plant veteran.
Three years ago, Downey obtained a coveted position as one of the plants few "auditors" who give finished trucks a final inspection.
He looks over seven a day, each with dozens of items to check, such as whether the doors rattle when slammed, whether there are imperfections in the paint job and how the vehicle drives.
Downey said the growth of the plant is evident from the lack of floor space. Areas that used to be spacious cafeterias have been reclaimed.
"That's a good thing. That's more people working," he said.
