The wait is over for customers eager to get behind the wheel of a new 2025 Ford Explorer or Lincoln Aviator.
The new SUVs are shipping now, and many have already been delivered to dealerships.
Ford’s Chicago Assembly Plant celebrates the launch of both vehicles, plus the launch of the latest Police Interceptor Utility – America’s best-selling police vehicle – as the facility marks 100 years of continuous production, the longest of any Ford manufacturing plant.
“Across all the models of Ford Explorer, luxury Lincoln Aviator and the purpose-built Police Interceptor Utility, this plant serves diverse segments with incredible vehicles,” said Angela Weathers, plant manager, Chicago Assembly Plant. “Our team enhanced pre-launch testing and quality checks to help ensure these vehicles exceed our customers’ expectations. We’re thrilled to have Explorer and Aviator SUVs out for delivery, building on Chicago Assembly Plant’s 100- year legacy of producing groundbreaking vehicles.”
2025 Ford Explorer and 2025 Lincoln Aviator
Explorer is America’s all-time best-selling SUV, with more than 8 million sold – defining SUV comfort, performance and functionality for more than three decades. The new Explorer sets a new standard with an updated lineup of models, all featuring a redesigned interior, advanced new technology and bolder exterior styling to create Ford’s best Explorer yet.
The 2025 Explorer is the first Ford vehicle to offer the new Ford Digital Experience infotainment system on a bigger, better digital display. The SUV’s fully redesigned interior features meticulously crafted materials and finely textured surfaces available in new colors. It is also the first Explorer with BlueCruise hands-free driving technology.
The new Lincoln Aviator showcases the brand’s evolved design language – with a bold new exterior design – and emphasizes signature features and connected experiences. The latest model includes the new Lincoln Digital Experience and BlueCruise, available on Aviator for the first time. The 2025 model offers best-in-class standard gas horsepower and torque.
More than 3.3 million Explorer SUVs have been assembled at Chicago Assembly Plant since production began there in 2010.
Ford employs more than 6,000 people in Chicago, supporting more than 57,000 direct and indirect jobs in the state. More than 15,000 Ford employees at eight plants in three states contribute to Explorer production, and Aviator production is supported by seven plants in three states and made possible by more than 13,500 direct employees.
Ford continues to lead all automakers in U.S. production volume and exports.
Focus on launch quality
Chicago Assembly Plant has been laser-focused on launching Explorer and Aviator with high quality. Teams spent hundreds of hours prototyping and test-driving Explorer and Aviator vehicles and they added enhanced end of-line checks to help make sure vehicles leaving the plant exceed customer expectations.
“We are on a journey to world-class manufacturing at Chicago Assembly Plant and everywhere across our footprint,” said Bryce Currie, Ford’s vice president, America’s Manufacturing. “The ideas and innovations driving our lean transformation have really energized our quality culture and servant leadership here at Ford, and that’s reflected in the processes and tools we’re deploying at Chicago Assembly Plant and around the globe.”
Chicago Assembly Plant employs cutting-edge tools like Ford’s Mobile AI Vision System (MAIVS) and other vision systems to assist in vehicle checks.
MAIVS uses mobile phone cameras and AI to perform quality inspections at various points during the assembly process. By catching issues right away, they can be fixed immediately without further disruption later in the assembly process.
MAIVS integrates out-of-the-box mobile phones with Ford’s manufacturing systems. It is in use at a variety of workstations, performing a range of tasks at Ford plants around the world.
There are 65 MAIVS cameras at Chicago Assembly Plant.
100 years of continuous production
The integration of artificial intelligence into vehicle assembly is just one indicator of the progress Chicago Assembly Plant has made in its 100-year history. From Model T vehicles to supporting the Allied war effort during World War II, to the groundbreaking Taurus, Chicago Assembly Plant has helped shape the legacy of Ford Motor Company.
Ford opened a sales office on Michigan Ave in 1905, built an assembly plant on S. Wabash Ave in 1914, then purchased the land for Chicago Assembly Plant in 1920. Moving Model T assembly to the newly built Chicago Assembly Plant in 1924 increased production capacity 140%.
During World War II, Chicago Assembly Plant produced a combined 6,000 armored vehicles, employing women on its assembly line for the first time.
Chicago Assembly Plant produced notable nameplates through the mid-twentieth century like the Galaxie, Fairlane and Thunderbird.
In 1986, Chicago Assembly Plant began producing one of Ford’s most important vehicles ever, the Taurus. All eight Taurus generations were assembled at Chicago Assembly Plant, more than 4.2 million in total, including the last Taurus ever manufactured, which rolled off assembly on March 1, 2019.
Explorer manufacturing began at the plant in 2010, and Aviator production began in 2019.
SOURCE: Ford
