[ad_1]
Ford Motor Co. is in the process of repackaging a previously announced manufacturing investment in the Detroit area and is now planning to spend $ 900 million and create 900 new jobs over the next four years.
Most new workers will build a new generation of electric vehicles at Ford's existing plant in Flat Rock, south of Detroit, which will benefit from an investment of $ 850 million. The company is also planning an approximately $ 50 million standalone vehicle manufacturing center on an undisclosed site near Detroit, where workers will add autonomous driving software to autonomous vehicles built at Flat Rock.
The announcement comes just after a series of three-day, venomous tweets by President Donald Trump, who sentenced his rival, General Motors Co., to Crosstown for closing his small-car factory in Lordstown, Ohio, to East of Cleveland. Trump asked GM to reopen the plant, criticized the local union leader and expressed frustration with GM's CEO Mary Barra.
Joe Hinrichs, president of Ford's global operations, did not want to directly answer the question of whether Trump's actions had influenced the changes, but said Wednesday that this investment was part of the company's plans to manage its activities more effectively. The timing of this announcement was due to the need for parts suppliers to be informed of manufacturing plans, Hinrichs said.
"We have run our business this way for over 10 years," he said in an interview. Hinrichs said Ford was aware that auto construction was receiving a lot of attention these days and that he was proud that Ford employs more workers represented by the United Auto Workers union than any other manufacturer. A spokesman for the union confirmed this statement.
In January 2017, Ford announced plans to invest $ 700 million in the Flat Rock plant to manufacture hybrid, electric and autonomous vehicles. Later, the company moved an all-electric SUV to a factory in Mexico, freeing up more space at Flat Rock for the construction of future electric and autonomous cars, adding $ 200 million to the investment. At that time, he promised 950 new jobs.
Hinrichs said the company's forecasts for EV sales clearly showed that Ford needed more space to build them. "We had to change some of our plans," he said, adding that the new plan represented a better use of capital spending.
The company intends to add a second post at Flat Rock to build an electric vehicle, which Hinrichs would not detail. Ford said production would begin in 2023.
The Flat Rock factory is now building the Mustang muscle and the luxurious Lincoln Continental, which has a dark future, as Ford has announced its intention to stop selling all cars in the United States, with the exception of the Mustang. Last November, 650 Flat Rock workers were transferred to other plants.
Hinrichs announced that the new autonomous vehicle center would begin modifying existing Ford models and planned to deploy them in 2021, as previously announced.
Source link
