Azernews.Az

By Bloomberg

Ford Motor Co. plans to hire 400 new employees to assemble its 2015 Ford Edge sport-utility vehicle at its Oakville plant in Canada, as U.S. drivers buoyed by cheap gasoline prices continue to flock to SUVs.

The hires are in addition to 1,000 jobs Ford announced for the facility in October, the Dearborn, Michigan-based company said in an e-mailed statement. Ford has invested a total of C$700 million ($563 million) to retool the factory to make the latest version of the SUV, which goes on sale in the U.S. and Canada later this year.

The second-biggest U.S. automaker is adding workers after total sales of SUVs jumped 12 percent in 2014, as gas prices dropped to the lowest level in five years. Ford Edge deliveries declined about 16 percent in 2014, while those of the Ford Escape gained 3.5 percent, according to Autodata Corp., of Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. SUVs account for 19 percent of the global automotive market, Ford said.

Lisa Raitt, Canada’s minister of transport, was set to attend an event at the plant to announce the hires, according to a separate statement.

Earlier this month, Ford said it plans to hire 1,550 workers to build the company’s new aluminum-bodied F-150 pickup in Missouri and Michigan.

Ford posted pretax operating income of $1.55 billion in North America in the fourth quarter, down from $1.8 billion a year earlier. The automaker’s U.S. sales fell 0.6 percent to 2.47 million last year, as the total market rose 5.9 percent.