Ford Puts $1 Billion Into the Paint Shop Where the Super Duty Is Built
The new shop replaces the existing one at Kentucky Truck Plant, home of the Super Duty, Expedition, and Navigator. Ford will break ground by year-end but hasn't said when it opens.
Ford will spend $1 billion on a new paint shop at Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, replacing the one the factory uses today. Groundbreaking is planned before the end of 2026.
The plant matters more than most. Ford calls it its largest and highest-revenue manufacturing site in the United States: every F-Series Super Duty pickup and chassis cab, plus the Expedition and Lincoln Navigator, comes off its lines.
Ford is framing the project as modernization rather than expansion. According to the company's announcement, the new shop will run on updated technology that delivers a cleaner, more efficient paint process with better finish quality and a smaller environmental footprint. Ford hasn't put numbers behind any of those claims.
What Ford hasn't said
Three things are missing from the announcement. There's no completion date for the new shop. Ford hasn't said whether Super Duty output will be affected while the plant moves from the old paint facility to the new one. And there's no mention of new jobs; the company only notes that its Kentucky operations employ more than 11,500 people.
Third major investment in a decade
This is the third big check Ford has written for the Louisville truck plant since 2015. In December 2015, the company committed $1.3 billion to an all-new body shop and retooling for the aluminum-bodied 2017 Super Duty, adding 2,000 jobs. In September 2022, it added $700 million and 500 jobs to prepare for the current-generation truck. A new paint shop completes the set: body shop, assembly tooling, and paint will all have been rebuilt within roughly ten years.
The paint shop also lands in the middle of a bigger Kentucky spending run. Ford is putting roughly $2 billion into Louisville Assembly Plant across town, retooling it for the Universal EV Platform and the Fathom midsize electric pickup due in 2027, a project Ford says creates or secures about 2,200 jobs. Another $2 billion or so is going into Ford Energy Systems in Glendale, which is set to start building grid-scale battery storage in late 2027 with at least 2,100 new jobs and 20 gigawatt-hours of annual capacity. Ford puts its total economic impact in the state above $33 billion.
Toyota got there first
Ford isn't the only automaker rebuilding a paint shop in Kentucky. Toyota announced a $922 million paint facility for its Georgetown plant in December 2024 and broke ground this June. Toyota has also been far more specific: the 1-million-square-foot building is scheduled to open in 2027, and the company says it will cut the plant's carbon emissions by 30 percent and save 1.5 million gallons of water a year.
Ford's project costs a bit more and is well behind on the calendar. Toyota's shop is already under construction with a firm 2027 opening; Ford's won't break ground until late this year and has no opening date at all. Whether Ford is targeting comparable emissions and water savings is another thing the company hasn't disclosed.
The next milestone is the groundbreaking itself, which Ford has promised by year-end. A completion date, and any word on how the switchover affects Super Duty production, are the first real details worth watching for.
