Ford launches new Expedition SUV in Louisville with $500 million investment. Take a look
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How many people work for Ford in Kentucky? See how it ranks.
Ford Motor Company has had a presence in Kentucky for more than a century.
Ford has begun shipping the 2025 Expedition SUV, which is assembled at the Kentucky Truck Plant.
The company emphasizes quality control improvements after past recalls.
The new Expedition features a redesigned exterior, upgraded technology, and a starting price of $62,000.
Kentucky represents about 20% of Ford's hourly workforce.
Ford Motor Co. has officially started to ship its newest SUV, assembled in Kentucky, just six months after the all-new 2025 Ford Expedition was unveiled in dramatic fashion at the Texas state fair late last year.
On April 30, Ford CEO Jim Farley was joined by Rocky Adkins, a senior advisor to Gov. Andy Beshear, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg and workers at the Ford Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville to celebrate the launch of the new vehicle.
"Kentucky makes the greatest baseball bats, the finest American whiskey, raises a lot of very fast thoroughbreds ... But in my book, Kentucky's greatest contribution to America happens right here (at Kentucky Truck Plant)," Farley said.
In addition to the Expedition, Lincoln, the luxury vehicle producer in the Ford portfolio, showcased its 2025 Lincoln Navigator, the flagship SUV in the Lincoln brand, which is also assembled at the Kentucky Truck Plant alongside the Expedition and F-Series Super Duty trucks.
"You are the horsepower of the auto industry in Kentucky, and you're showing America what's possible," Adkins said at the launch party.
In anticipation of the 2025 Expedition launch, Ford invested roughly $500 million into the Kentucky Truck Plant to bring it updated equipment, new technologies, additional vehicle testers and more, Farley said.
Here's what we know about the new 2025 Ford Expedition SUV:
'From Kentucky, for America'
Ford is branding the launch as "From Kentucky, For America" in an effort to remind consumers during uncertain economic times that the automaker is an American company, employing a large American workforce.
Between the Kentucky Truck Plant and Ford's smaller Louisville Assembly Plant off Fern Valley Road, Kentucky currently represents about 20% of Ford's entire hourly workforce, a company spokesperson said. Last year, the Louisville area plants assembled more than 700,000 vehicles.
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"At Ford, we believe we can, and we must build a strong manufacturing base in America," Farley said, adding that Ford is leading the way on revitalizing American manufacturing, with 80% of vehicles sold in the U.S. being assembled in the U.S. at facilities like the Kentucky Truck Plant or Louisville Assembly Plant.
During the event, Farley took aim at automaker competitors, noting "we never left America," and adding in that Ford has continued investment planned for the U.S., including the current construction of a plant in Ohio and Tennessee.
"Imagine, if the companies who import all the vehicles in the U.S., treated American manufacturing like Ford," Farley said. "... if our competition moves forward and moves assembly production back to the U.S. at our levels, that would be equivalent of producing 15 new auto plants in the U.S. That's the difference."
In recent weeks as President Donald Trump has enacted a slew of tariffs, automakers like Ford have been caught in the crossfire. While Farley said he supports the Trump administrations mission to restore American manufacturing, he said there is still room to grow on securing "a comprehensive set of policies to support our shared vision of that healthy and growing auto industry."
"We are not there yet," Farley said in regard to trade policy.
With the emphasis of Ford's latest marketing campaign, "Built for America" the company is hoping to "remind Americans where things come from matters and Ford is different," Farley said.
Quality control takes a front seat with new Expedition SUV
In 2023, the last time Ford launched a new vehicle out of the Kentucky Truck Plant, company officials harped on a new era of quality control standards coming into play. At the time, Ford was freshly off having seen nearly three million vehicles recalled in 2022 and surpassing $5 billion in warranty related costs in 2019.
The quality control efforts implemented at the truck plant and across town at the smaller Louisville Assembly Plant that produces the Ford Escape and Lincoln Corsair, have produced mixed results. Ford has had several recalls, impacting at least 11,000 Super Duty trucks since the 2023 model launched along with recalls facing its other Kentucky-made vehicles.
But amid the ongoing effort to battle quality issues, Ford is confident its latest SUV to hit the road is a winner.
"We think it's the right time to emphasize that on quality, we will never be done with quality," Farley said. "Every time you come here for a launch, you're going to be hearing about quality. It is a game of inches and millimeters."
Claire Yarmak, a quality manager at Kentucky Truck Plant, told The Courier Journal quality control was a "relentless" focus for the automaker this go around, and led to the introduction of 20 new trained drivers to do tests and audits on 100% of the new vehicles and 72 new finished vehicle compliance audits to ensure vehicle features work as intended.
One of the most evident areas of quality control inside the Kentucky Truck Plant is the deployment of the Mobile Artificial Intelligence Vision System, an AI technology developed by Ford that uses machines to scan vehicles in real time and identify quality issues such as electrical, component and trim issues.
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This technology was first used at the truck plant in 2023 with only 20 machines but ahead of the Expedition launch, the company installed more than 100 machines at the plant to up its quality control for the newest SUV.
"We do not want to go through the issues we have in the past, and so far, the quality looks great," Farley said.
What are the features on the all-new 2025 Ford Expedition?
The 2025 Ford Expedition boasts a multitude of new features, packages and an upgraded design. To date, some 16,000 vehicles have been produced and are making their ways to consumers across all 50 states.
"Expedition is all about serving families that live big lives," said Adrian Aguirre, chief program engineer for Ford Expedition. "We know these customers and we know them because we are obsessed with finding out what will make their lives easier and their experiences better."
So much of the newest vehicle's focus is around elevating the experience for families who spend a lot of time in and around their vehicle, from camping trips to long days hauling it across town, leading Aguirre to call it, the "most dependable Expedition ever."
While not a new generation vehicle redesign, the outside appearance of the vehicle has received a stylish facelift with a new take on the front grille, new headlights and taillights, and a new wheel design.
One of the hallmark features of the new large SUV is a power tailgate split into independently opening upper and power sections to create a variety of new features.
The three-row SUV which can seat up to eight people also features a "squircle" shaped steering wheel to make room for a newly revamped interior, touch screen display in the vehicle.
The manufacturer suggested retail price for the most basic version of the vehicle starts at $62,000 and goes up to a starting price of $86,655 for the Expedition Max King Ranch model. There are seven models of the vehicle available.
Here are 15 additional new features on the 2025 Ford Expedition:
Note: This list is not inclusive of all features for all models of the 2025 Ford Expedition.
Tremor off-road model
24-inch front display screen
Horizontally split power tailgate
9,600-pound towing capacity
Blue Cruise hands-free highway driving system
15 Beverage Holders
Illuminated entry system with theater-dimming
Auto-dimming rearview mirror
Lane-Keeping system which includes Lane-Keeping assist, Lane-Keeping alert, road edge protection and driver alert
360-degree camera
Rock crawl mode
Panoramic vista roof
Intelligent four-wheel drive with terrain management system
Pro-trailer hitch assist
3.5L EcoBoost engine
Contact business reporter Olivia Evans at oevans@courier-journal.com or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter at @oliviamevans_.
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