Ford: We're Canceling $1.6 Billion Mexico Facility, Investing In Electric and US Plant (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Today at the Flat Rock Assembly Plant, Ford Motor Company CEO Mark Fields unveiled a large-scale electric vehicle initiative that will run through the company's next five years. Ford plans to invest $4.5 billion in electric vehicle production by 2020, and the company said it will produce 13 new electric vehicles, including a Mustang, an F-150, police cars, and a Transit Custom van. Additionally, Fields revealed that Ford would be canceling a previously announced $1.6 billion-production facility in Mexico. Instead, the company wants to invest $700 million in the existing Flat Rock facility, generating 700 new jobs focused on EV and autonomous initiatives at that location, according to Ford. Ford described seven of the 13 upcoming EVs during its press conference today. The F-150 Hybrid will be available by 2020 in North America and the Middle East, and Fields noted it'll be powerful enough to stand-in for on-site generators in a pinch. The Mustang Hybrid will deliver "V8 power and even more low-end torque" according to Ford; it too is intended for a 2020 release. Generally, electric motors are well suited to applications where you want a lot of immediate torque, so their presence should work well in a light duty truck like the F-150. Among the other notable vehicles highlighted, Ford is planning a fully electric small SUV that can "deliver an estimated range of at least 300 miles" by 2020. The company also wants to produce an autonomous vehicle "designed for commercial ride hailing or ride sharing" in North America by 2021.

Comments

Yay

[Hognoxious]

Go Trumperor!!!!!

Re:Yay

[Anonymous Coward]

Why are Mexican jobs my responsibility? Where were you when people were losing their jobs in the US?

Re:Yay

[unixisc]

Afraid of a tax-spanking, Ford plays into the hands of the President Elect - and they will be richly rewarded for their grandstanding.

Meanwhile, a city in Mexico just lost $1.6B of direct investment and many hundreds of jobs. That's O.K., they'll have plenty of other opportunities;

How did the Mexican city lose something that was yet to be built, or that was yet to hire anybody?

Re:Yay

[Minupla]

One would presume the same way the US can gain jobs that had yet to be lost?

Re:Yay

[LynnwoodRooster]

I wonder why, in the spirit of your post, you haven't offshored your own job to a dozen workers in India, China, or the Ukraine? You're costing them hundreds of thousands of dollars and dozens of jobs...

Re:Yay

[guruevi]

Sure, it's called an executive order and as Obama is proving very hard the last few days in office, it allows the president broad, unilateral powers to do whatever he damn well wants without any oversight from any other branch of government.

So if Trump wants to get out of NAFTA (for good or for bad), he just has to say so. NAFTA only protects foreign interests, sure there may be some immediate fallout from some nations being really upset they're losing revenue, but what will they do, stop trading with the US?

Re:Yay

[Cmdln Daco]

A really big part of the good that will come out of a Trump presidency is that Congress will now clip the wings of the Executive Branch and widespread out-of-control Executive Orders will become a thing of the past.

Re:Yay

[silentcoder]

There's just one small problem: Obama has used less executive orders than any other president in 40 years. Even now, in his final days, when presidents traditionally use a lot of them - passing things their base will like and forcing the other side to be the assholes that repeal it because their base don't like them.

Obama only really began using executive orders after 4 years of the most obstructionist congress in history. The guy REALLY tried to do things by working with congress, they refused to work with him. They took a vow to undermine him at every step and pursued that vow with such alacrity that some of their actions bordered on high treason (that letter to Iran almost certainly crossed the line actually). That was where Obama, finally, started using them as the only means to get ANYTHING done while in office.

What else did you expect when over a 4 year period the republicans would not cooperate on ANYTHING -even things they had been clamoring to do for DECADES were resisted if it was proposed by HIM.

Good, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

While this is ultimately an economic decision (small car sales are waaaay down and Ford doesn't need another factory), I can't imagine the threat of tariffs didn't factor into the decision to cancel the Mexican factory. Nevertheless, it's amazing how the online comments sections are taking a black vs.white/pro vs. anti-Trump side to a nuanced subject.

Ultimately, this is good news for Michigan workers, whether or not we bring politics into the discussion.

Re:Good, but...

[bobbied]

The question of if Trump deserves the victory lap or not is really moot... What matters is how the voters/workers in Michigan and elsewhere perceive this move by Ford...If THEY think Trump is responsible, then that's all that matters. Give Trump his due, he's at least TRYING to market himself using these accomplishments.

Besides, all the political posturing is not new... What IS new though is a Republican (even if in name only) is taking credit for something largely seen as a good thing for labor... After all, we've been beguiled with tall tales of Obama's accomplishments for 8 years where he's taken credit for things he wasn't responsible for (and a few things he actively took actions to oppose.)

Finally Ford see the future.

[Higaran]

I've alway been a fan of ford, but they have been dragging ass for a long time, only just barely innovating for the last few years. I'm glad they finally realize that they are going to need to really start pulling more into electric and hybrids. I think the biggest thing pushing them is actually emissions. From my understanding it's impossible for a big V8 to pass the new emissions regulations that will be even more stringent next few years.

Two Decisions are Unrelated

[retroworks]

I have read the linked article and article in WSJ and WashPost. There appears to be some confusion in the Ars Technica article, and in the summary. The investment in the Flat Rock Michigan plant is to create new electric vehicles, to maintain employment for the Ford Escort employees, as Ford continues its plan to move the Escorts to 100% in Mexico. This is similar to the November story, when Ford moved mature Lincoln manufacturing from Louisville KY to Mexico, but invested in a new vehicle manufacturing in KY rather than close the plant.

From the Post https://www.washingtonpost.com... :

"At Ford, Joseph Hinrichs, president of Ford in the Americas, said the decision to produce the newly announced cars in the United States was made recently and without consulting people connected to Trump. Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford shared the news with Trump in a phone call Tuesday morning, though the details of that call were not immediately available.

While the Ford Focus will soon be produced south of the border, Hinrichs said the 3,500 workers who currently make the car at its production facility in Wayne, Mich., will instead build two yet-to-be-named vehicles, and thus those jobs will stay in place."

Trump seems very talented at getting his name into headlines about decisions that have nothing to do with him

Re:Truth of the story.

[Waffle Iron]

Everybody knows Ford sucks. Hard. They haven't won a NASCAR championship in years.

Is there even a single part on a modern NASCAR car that has any relation at all to an actual production vehicle?

I think that argument is kind of like "Law degrees from Yale suck: Their football record was only 3-7 this year."

Re:Losing

[ranton]

Why do you hate America?

I love my country, which is why I want it to stay competitive. Factory payrolls, construction contracts, and industrial production all increased after the Smoot-Hawley act as well, but the Great Depression was a grim reminder of what happens when countries try for short term gains through protectionist measures.

Re:Thanks to Trump? Obviously!

[Aighearach]

The really funny part is that the whole narrative doesn't add up; the claim is they were going to invest $1.6B in Mexico because everything is cheaper there, so instead now they're going to invest $700M in the US because... Trump. That math just doesn't work out. Obviously what actually happened is that the thing they were thinking about building for $1.6B simply isn't going to happen right now, and a totally unrelated thing that costs $700M is happening in the US. Maybe those are related, maybe not, but the narrative is clearly not true.

Re:Thanks to Trump? Obviously!

[AutodidactLabrat]

FALSE!
The REAL reason Ford won't go to Mexico has nothing to do with Trump says Ford CEO

Re:mod parent down, RTFA

[retroworks]

Ford CEO certainly applauded Trump's pro-business posture. But the articles CLEARLY state that the Ford Focus and Escort jobs are going to Hermasillo (a different Mexico factory) and that the jobs in Michigan are for a completely unrelated electric vehicle which was NEVER going to be made in Mexico. Is Ford CEO smart to play it as a "thanks for lower regulations and taxes" move? Perhaps so. But the Michigan jobs (electric vehicles) were NEVER going to Mexico, and the cancelled Mexico plant operations are moving to Hermasillo in Sonora Mexico.