Motor engine

The Ford Motor Company opened its plant at Dagenham, Essex, in 1931. At the time the site was marshland in the Essex countryside used as a rubbish tip and a dumping ground for rancid fat from London's meat markets. The factory was built by sinking 22, 000 concrete piles into the marshes. 17, 000 tonnes of steel and 9 million wood blocks were used to construct the buildings and flooring. Staff and machinery were relocated on special trains from the original UK Ford factory at Trafford Park in Manchester. In all it cost Henry Ford £5 million to build his 'Detroit in Miniature'. The plant was self contained and equipped with its own docks, power station and foundry. Dagenham was Ford's flagship European plant known as 'Detroit in Europe', which employed over 40, 000 workers at the peak of production in the 1960s.

The 1980s saw the introduction of robotic production technology which reduced the workforce significantly. This combined with intense global competition in the car industry meant that by the time Ford manufactured its 250 millionth car at Dagenham in 1996, the plant only employed 8, 000 people. By the 1990s a significant proportion of the workforce were female and/or from ethnic minorities. Car production ceased in 2002, but in 2003 Prime Minister Tony Blair opened the new Diesel Centre. Dagenham produces the most diesel engines in Ford's global operation. Research and development also takes place at Dagenham. The plant is now powered by wind turbines designed by Norman Foster.

The 'Puma' family of diesel engines are used by Jaguar and Landrover and also in commercial vehicles manufactured by Ford, Peugeot-Citroën and Fiat. This 2.2 litre engine was made for a V347 Ford transit van. The engine contains components manufactured at Ford's plant in Germany and by other manufacturers in France, Italy and Hungary. The transit vans themselves are assembled in the People's Republic of China.