APRIL 20: Ford Launches Assembly Line

Profile America — Wednesday, April 20th. The American automobile industry began to crank up this month in 1913 — as Henry Ford set up the first moving assembly line in Highland Park, Michigan. Before the assembly line, workers spent over 12 hours building a single Model T. Afterward, it took only 93 minutes. Ultimately, a new car came off the assembly line every 24 seconds, and 15 million were built over the years of production. Prices dropped too. In 1909, a basic Model T roadster cost $825 — by 1925, it was down to $260. Now, American automakers — Ford still among them, of course — manufacture close to $105 billion worth of vehicles annually. Production peaked in 2016 at over 12-million passenger and commercial vehicles. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at www.census.gov.

Sources:

Assembly line, accessed 8/30/2021

Speed of production, accessed 8/30/2021

Model T prices, accessed 8/30/2021

U.S. auto sales value, Annual Survey of Manufacturers, NAICS 336111

Production data, accessed 8/30/2021