Ford Romania is an

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded ...

manufacturing company operated by

Ford of Europe Ford of Europe GmbH is a subsidiary company of Ford Motor Company founded in 1967 in Cork, Ireland, with headquarters in Cologne, Germany. History Ford of Europe was founded in 1967 by the merger of Ford of Britain, Ford Germany, and Irish H ...

, located in

Craiova Craiova (, also , ), is Romania's 6th Cities in Romania, largest city and capital of Dolj County, and situated near the east bank of the river Jiu River, Jiu in central Oltenia. It is a longstanding political center, and is located at approximatel ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

History

20th century

Royal Garage imported Ford cars as early as May 1911. Shortly, other agencies such as Colin & Co., Leonida & Co., Noel S.A.R, and Raf S.A.R. expanded the market. Numerous political figures owned Ford cars. Among them was

Ion I. C. Brătianu Ion Ionel Constantin Brătianu (, also known as Ionel Brătianu; 20 August 1864 – 24 November 1927) was a Romanian politician, leader of the National Liberal Party (PNL), Prime Minister of Romania for five terms, and Foreign Minister on se ...

, whose daughter used to call her car Forduţa.Lavinia Popica, Ford Motor Company in Romania, http://muzeulnationaljournal.ro/?articol=29451-ford-motor-company-in-romania Ford cars were an instant success story, thus between May 1911 and November 1912, Royal Garage already sold 106 Ford cars. On December 8, 1920, Collin & Co. requested on behalf of the Ford Motor Company the permission to build an assembly plant in Romania. Unfortunately,

Vintilă Brătianu Vintilă Ion Constantin Brătianu (16 September 1867 – 22 December 1930) was a Romanian politician who served as Prime Minister of Romania between 24 November 1927 and 9 November 1928. He and his brothers Ion I. C. Brătianu and Dinu Brătianu ...

, “notoriously anti-American”, rejected the proposal to the regret of the people directly involved as well as the public opinion. In October 1927, William G. Collins (in the future, assistant manager in

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

, Egypt) renewed the proposal for establishing an assembly plant in Constanţa. Finally, in 1931, Ford Motor Company opened a subsidiary in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north o ...

. On March 1, 1935 Ford Romania addressed a request for building a new plant on Calea Floreasca, the architect was P. Em. Miclescu, with the contribution of Ioana Golescu. On September 26, 1934, Ford Romania bought 7,535 square meters from Imobiliara Chrissoveloni, at the price of lei 2,335,850 (the price for one square meter was lei 310). Furthermore, Ford Romania intended to receive the advantages granted by the law encouraging the national industry, to sign a treaty for a period of ten years, and to import 2,500 units per year, and the ability to increase this number if the demand would be higher. Lastly, the company requested to be taxed on parts rather than on built-up units. On May 6, 1936, the Government reduced the privileges granted to Ford, thus the number of imported units dropped to 100; the names of the parts were individually identified, such as paint, valve oil. On May 15, 1936, the assembly plant situated in Bd. V. Craiu (Calea Floreasca) opened. The capacity of this assembly plant was 2,500 cars per year and different reparations at 6,000 cars yearly, the power, the rough material and the employees: „250 workers, from whom five foreign foremen, five technicians and a Romanian draughtsman. The technical manager was a Romanian engineer (L. D. Greceanu). The administrative management was to be held by a general manager, Austrian citizen, helped by five managers, four Romanian citizens and a Swiss one, who are helped at the office by twelve bookkeepers and twenty-six administrative clerks, five of them foreign citizens”. Ford company came to Romania in 1935, after a negotiation with the Romanian government. The company started the first car production line in Eastern Europe at the Ford Română S.A.R. facility in

Floreasca Floreasca () is a district in Bucharest, Romania, in Sector 2. Its name comes from Lake Floreasca, which is situated in the north of the neighborhood. The Floreasca Hospital is also situated in the neighborhood, in its southern part. Floreasc ...

neighborhood of

. It assembled 1935 Ford (V8-48 and V8-68 models),

1937 Ford The Ford line of cars was updated in 1937 with one major change — the introduction of an entry-level V8 in addition to the popular flathead V8. The model was a refresh of its predecessor, the Model 48 (itself based on the Model 40A ...

(V8-74/78, V8-81A/82A, V8-91A/92A and V8-01A/02A models), in Standard and De Luxe versions,

Mercury Eight The Mercury Eight is an automobile that was marketed by the Mercury division of Ford between 1939 and 1951. The debut model line of the Mercury division, Ford slotted the full-size Mercury Eight between the Ford Deluxe (later Custom) model lin ...

, and

Fordson Fordson was a brand name of tractors and trucks. It was used on a range of mass-produced general-purpose tractors manufactured by Henry Ford & Son Inc from 1917 to 1920, by Ford Motor Company (U.S.) and Ford Motor Company Ltd (U.K.) from 19 ...

trucks. The plant produced until

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

when it did only repair activities for the army vehicle fleet. After the war, in 1948, the company was nationalized, and changed its activity to become, in 1960, ''Automatica'', a manufacturer of electrical equipment and automation.

21st century

In modern times the company is located in Craiova, in the former

Oltcit Oltcit S.A. () was an automobile manufacturer, established as a joint venture between the Romanian government (64%) and Citroën (36%). Their main products were the Oltcit Club and Citroën Axel hatchbacks, assembled in Craiova, Romania. History ...

car factory, later

Daewoo Motors Daewoo Motors ( ) was a South Korean automotive company established in 1937 as "National Motors". The company changed its name several times until 1982 when it became "Daewoo Motors" following its acquisition by the Daewoo Group. After running i ...

facility in Romania (as

Daewoo Automobile Romania Oltena (officially ''S.C. Automobile Craiova S.A.'') was a Romanian car manufacturer formed in 1991 after the takeover of the Oltcit shares held by Citroën by the Romanian state. From 1994 and up until 2006, ''Automobile Craiova S.A.'' (''ACSA ...

), which Ford acquired in 2008 from the Romanian government. Vehicle production at the plant began in September 2009 with the

Ford Transit Connect The Ford Transit Connect is a compact panel van sold by Ford since 2002. Developed by Ford of Europe, the model line replaced sedan-based vans ( Ford Escort and Ford Courier vans) with a dedicated commercial vehicle platform. The model lin ...

, and later with the Ford B-Max. Engine production at the plant includes three- and four-cylinder versions of Ford's

EcoBoost EcoBoost is a series of turbocharged, direct-injection gasoline engines produced by Ford and originally co-developed by FEV Inc. (now named FEV North America Inc.). EcoBoost engines are designed to deliver power and torque consistent with thos ...

engine family. The plant has a production capacity of 300,000 units per year and it is the country's third company by value of exports. In March 2016, it was announced that the

Ford EcoSport The Ford EcoSport (pronounced ) is a subcompact crossover SUV (B-segment) manufactured by Ford. The first-generation model was developed and built in Brazil by Ford Brazil since 2003, at the Camaçari plant. The second-generation model was laun ...

will be built at the Craiova plant starting from the autumn of 2017, moving production for the European market from the current plant in Chennai, India. This happens on the background of the growing market for the SUV segment in Europe, and will bring an investment of €200 million to the factory. In March 2022, it is announced that

Ford Otosan Ford Otomotiv Sanayi A.Ş. (''Ford Automotive Industry'') is an automotive manufacturing company based in Turkey that is equally owned by Ford Motor Company and Koç Holding. It was established in its current form in 1977, with original relatio ...

is going to purchase the ownership of Ford Romania.

Production

Automobiles

(2009–2012) * Ford B-Max (2012–2017) *

(2017–present) * Ford Puma (2019–present)

Engines

* 1.0 L EcoBoost I3 (2012–present) * 1.5 L EcoBoost I4 (2013–2014)

References

External links

* {{Romanian automobile brands and manufacturers 1976 establishments in Romania Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1976 Car manufacturers of Romania Ford of Europe factories Privatized companies in Romania Buildings and structures in Craiova Companies based in Craiova de:Automobile Craiova