Ford has signed a deal with Vodafone Group to install a private 5G network at the automaker’s UK electric-vehicle parts facility in Dunton, near London. Ford said the network could speed up production of EV components.
“For a single EV product, this could generate more than half a million pieces of data every minute,” Ford said in a statement. The upgrade will provide faster and more accurate manufacturing control and analysis, the automaker said.
Ford says the upgrade will be focused on the connectivity of its welding machines that are used in the production of batteries and electric motors.
The private 5G network at will replace older Wi-Fi networks at the automaker’s Dunton campus.
The project is part of a 65-million-pound ($81 million) investment in 5G backed by the UK government, Ford said, and would be among the first of its kind in Britain.
Earlier this week, Toyota Production Engineering Corporation selected Finland’s Nokia Oyj to install an industrial-grade 5G private wireless network at its manufacturing design center in Fukuoka, Japan.
