Is The End In Sight? Ford Plans To Scale Back 5.0L V8 Production At Essex Engine Plant

Employees can move to the plant building the Super Duty's 7.3-liter V8

5.0-liter V8 production scaled back

Ford’s 5.0-liter engine demand is waning.

Buyers in the market for a Ford F-150 currently have six engine options. From the base 3.3-liter V6, you can buy a 2.7-liter EcoBoost, a 3.5-liter EcoBoost (with a high output version for the Raptor and Limited), or the good old 5.0-liter Modular “Coyote” V8. With the popularity of the smaller, more efficient EcoBoost engines, demand for the largest engine in the lineup is waning.

Now, Automotive News reports that Ford is dropping a production shift at its Essex engine plant in Windsor, Ontario, Canada to line up with a lower take rate on the V8. A Ford Canada spokesperson said in an e-mail that the company is making the move “to better align with consumer demand.” However, that same e-mail also said “there will be no cuts” to the Essex engine plant’s personnel. Instead, employees will have the chance to move to the nearby Windsor engine plant annex to support production of the 7.3-liter V8 for the upcoming Super Duty.

The annex building is a 15-minute drive from the Essex plant, according to Automotive News. While Ford plans to wind down 5.0-liter production in October, two new production shifts are expected to open up at the Windsor plant annex in November. John D’Agnolo, president of Essex plant union Unifor Local 200, saw the move coming.

“We’ve had down shifts every week since January, and we have two down weeks in the summer, and two more down weeks scheduled in September. We could see that sales of the 5.0-liter were dropping.”

Check out the 5.0-liter versus its smaller-engined siblings below: