Ford’s Oakville assembly plant outside of Toronto, Canada, has started production of the 2015 Edge SUV.
The automaker said it added 400 employees to supplement the 1,000 new hires that were announced last year. It spent C$700m on retooling and expansion.
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The Edge will eventually be exported while right hand drive and a diesel engine allow first shipments to western Europe.
Worldwide demand for utility vehicles is up 88% since 2008 and utilities now account for 19% of the global automotive market with the segment expanding more than three times the rate of the vehicle industry overall.
In Europe, the utility vehicle segment grew from 9% market share in 2008 to 21% in 2014. In the United States – the Edge’s biggest market – the vehicle has been the best-selling five passenger crossover utility for seven out of the eight years since its launch.
