American carmaker Ford has begun the production of its new SUV model Puma at its plant in Craiova, southern Romanian, in early October, and the factory has already started exports to Western European dealers, Ziarul Financiar reported.

The Puma and EcoSport SUVs produced in Craiova are both exported by train as well as by truck.

This is the first time that Ford produces two models in Craiova at the same time and it plans to assemble more than 250,000 units per year in total.

To cope with the volumes, the Ford plant now operates in three shifts, as does the Dacia factory, also located in southern Romania.

With the new Puma model, Ford becomes the first local automaker to produce a hybrid car in Romania. The small SUV also has systems that make it "semi-autonomous".

(Photo: media.ford.com)

editor@romania-insider.com