[3] Amid a global cost-cutting drive and citing a lack of demand for its manufacturing capacity, Ford closed the plant on 25 September 2020.

Staffed by workers dedicated to Jaguar production of the AJ-V8 engine, it included a linked flow-line of computer numerically controlled machines with automated loading and assembly.

[9][10] At the start of 2015, the Bridgend plant had an annual production capacity of 750,000 engines, including 250,000 for Jaguar Land Rover,[9] and employed a total of 2,137 people.

[12] Hoping to repeat the Fox's success for heavier and sportier vehicles, Ford designed a scaled-up version with a displacement of 1.5 litres (91 cu in), producing up to 150 kW (200 PS), which they named "Dragon."

Ford of Europe conducted a review to decide where to build the Dragon, with the choice of plants in Bridgend, Cologne, Craiova (Romania), and Valencia.

"[3] Amid Ford's global cost-cutting programme,[4] downsizing plans leaked in January 2019 called for phased redundancies at the Bridgend plant totalling 990 by 2021.

[4] By mid-2019, according to Wells, the Bridgend plant had become clearly uneconomic due to its under-utilisation, in turn arising from lack of demand for the engines made there.

[3] Ford decided against manufacturing batteries at Bridgend due to the plant's distance from their vehicle assembly factories, which are all located outside the United Kingdom, hence beyond a customs frontier from January 2021.

[14][15] The Welsh Government, which later said it had "strained every sinew" and met "very regularly" with Ford to try to avert the closure, created a taskforce to try to save the plant, but it did not officially convene for over eight months between July 2018 and March 2019.

[4][16] In June 2019, Ford briefed trade unions that the plant would close in September 2020, with production of the Dragon engine to end in February 2020.

[4] A taskforce, sponsored jointly by the Welsh Economy Minister and the Secretary of State for Wales, was convened on 1 July 2019 to support former Ford employees in Bridgend.