Kansas City’s auto industry employs over 25,000 workers in the automotive and transportation sectors. In 2025, Kansas City is a major automotive manufacturing hub. The history of Kansas City’s position as a major automotive manufacturing center goes all the way back to the early part of the 20th Century. And to Henry Ford.
Henry Ford – just as he did in Detroit – was the one automotive entrepreneur who really lit the match for Kansas City’s emergence – and for Kansas City’s growth – as a global leader in automotive manufacturing
Under the direction of Henry Ford, the very first automotive assembly plant built by Ford Motor Company outside of Detroit was built in Kansas City. Henry Ford built Ford’s first non-Detroit automotive manufacturing plant in 1913. Ford’s Kansas City plant was located at 10th and Winchester in Kansas City, Missouri.
In 1951, Ford relocated his company’s Kansas City manufacturing to what once had been a military production plant. Ford relocated the company’s Kansas City manufacturing outside of Kansas City proper. To Claycomo, Missouri.
When Ford expanded, Claycomo, Missouri – Claycomo is part of the Kansas City Metro Area – was home to an old military plant. The plant was eyed by Henry Ford…perfectly suitable for his Kansas City expansion plans.
Henry Ford acquired – then reconfigured – that old military production plant in Claycomo. Transforming his Claycomo acquisition into a mass-production automobile assembly plant for Ford by 1956.
Ford’s KC Claycomo plant – known as KCAP (Kansas City Assembly Plant) – employs nearly 10,000 KC area auto workers. The plant sprawls over 1,200 acres in Claycomo, Missouri.
Ford F-Series pickup trucks are built in Claycomo. Since 1948, Kansas City has produced over 40 million F-Series Ford pickups.
Ford – as a company – and Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant Ford – as an automotive assembly plant – were by no means the only automobile manufacturer – and the only automobile assembly plant – to grow the automotive manufacturing base in Kansas City early in the 20th Century.
Between the year 1910 – as 1910 is 3 years prior to the establishment of Ford’s Kansas City plant – and 1914, Smith Automobile Company manufactured over 300 cars in Kansas City.
There were other automobile manufactures in Kansas City early on in the 20th Century as well. Stanford Motor Car Company. Midwest Motor Company. Beggs Motor Company. Severin Motor Company. To name just a few.
Beginning in 1905 – again, pre-Ford – and running through 1909, the Kansas City Motor Car Company manufactured automobiles in the old Northeast neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri.
And we have General Motors in Kansas City as well…
General Motors adopted Kansas City several decades after Henry Ford adopted Kansas City. And General Motors – as did Ford, decades prior – adopted Kansas City in a big way.
Im 2025, General Motors’ Kansas City manufacturing assembly plant sits on nearly 600 acres in Kansas City, Kansas. Employing over 2,000 Kansas City auto workers. That’s today. In 2025. As the General Motors – Kansas City marriage goes all the way back to right after the end of World War II.
It was just after World War II had ended that General Motors added Kansas City to the company’s manufacturing footprint.
GM’s history in Kansas City begins with the company’s decision to purchase what had once been – up until that point – a Kansas City, Kansas aircraft production facility.
Automobile manufacturing by General Motors in Kansas City – in Kansas City, Kansas – was set in motion as a result of the company’s purchase of that old aircraft facility – the Bomber Production Plant. The Bomber Production Plant was located in Fairfax.
Kansas City and Fairfax…
Fairfax is the industrial section of Kansas City, Kansas. The Fairfax Industrial District – found on the Missouri River’s Goose Island river bend – is the primary manufacturing hub in – of the two Kansas City’s – the Kansas City which is located in the Sunflower State.
What once had been Kansas City’s Bomber Production Plant produced a military plane – the B-25 Mitchell. General Motors purchased the Bomber Production Plant in Fairfax…then converted the former aircraft production facility into a mass production automobile assembly plant.
General Motors’ Kansas City Fairfax plant started manufacturing cars by the end of World War II. GM’s original Fairfax plant manufactured cars on through 1987.
In 1987, General Motors doubled-down on Kansas City by building the company’s current – and larger – Kansas City assembly plant right next to their original Kansas City Fairfax plant. In Fairfax.
GM’s new Fairfax plant – known as Fairfax II – was constructed on the site of the old Fairfax airport. At that time, Fairfax II represented a $1 billion investment made by General Motors into Kansas City.
In terms of Kansas City and the United Auto Workers…Kansas City has a very strong base of auto workers.
For example…
The UAW in Pleasant Valley, Missouri – Pleasant Valley is part of the KC Metro – has over 7,900 KC-area union auto workers. UAW Council in Kansas City, Missouri has 7,500 KC union auto workers. UAW Local 710 in Kansas City, Missouri has nearly 3,000 union auto workers. And in Kansas City, Kansas, UAW Local 51 has over 1,000 KC union auto workers.
The conversion of that old Kansas City military plant by Henry Ford… That $1 billion investment in Fairfax made by General Motors – Fairfax II…The future of the automotive industry in Kansas City looks rosy, primed and well-positioned for long-term growth.
For example…
General Motors invested $650 million in the company’s Fairfax plant in 2013. General Motors invested another $265 million into the Fairfax plant 5 years later…in 2018.
Ford invested $1.2 billion into the company’s Kansas City Assembly Plant in 2011. Followed by a $400 million investment made by Ford into the Kansas City Assembly Plant in 2019. Followed by another $100 million investment made by Ford into the Kansas City Assembly Plant in 2021.
In late Fall, General Motors announced that the company will be investing $390 million in the company’s Fairfax plant.
The automotive industry has been a major part of Kansas City’s economic progression as a city. Since early on in the 20th Century. There can be paragraph after paragraph after paragraph added to any writing about Kansas City and the auto industry should the writer choose to add the subject of EV’s to their work. This article is not about EV’s.
Regardless of which automotive subtopic one elects to focus upon when writing about Kansas City and the automotive industry, one thing is quite clear.
Throughout the 20th Century, Kansas City has been a major industrial hub when it comes to automotive manufacturing. Today, Kansas City is a major automotive manufacturing hub. Furthermore, all signs point in one direction for Kansas City and automotive manufacturing: the city’s role in the progression of – and the evolution for – the automotive industry can be classified as, highly relevant. And becoming morseso.
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