Ford drops $1.6B Mexico plant for $700M investment in Michigan

The Focus will still be built in Mexico, just not at a new plant.

By Alex Kierstein
Mark Fields, president and chief executive officer of Ford Motor Co., speaks during Automobility LA ahead of the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Tuesday, November 15, 2016. President-elect Donald J. Trump's proposal to levy a 35 percent tariff on cars made in Mexico would hurt the U.S. economy, according to Fields -- the target of the future president's tariff talk. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Mark Fields, president and chief executive officer of Ford Motor Co., speaks during Automobility LA ahead of the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Tuesday, November 15, 2016. President-elect Donald J. Trump's proposal to levy a 35 percent tariff on cars made in Mexico would hurt the U.S. economy, according to Fields -- the target of the future president's tariff talk. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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Ford today announced that it will cancel a $1.6 billion manufacturing plant that was to be built in Mexico to produce the Ford Focus and will instead build the Focus at a Mexican plant that already exists. In addition, the company will invest some $700 million into the Flat Rock Assembly Plant in Michigan.


Speaking to
CNN, Ford CEO Mark Fields claimed the move was not due to a deal with President-elect Donald Trump. “We didn’t cut a deal with Trump. We did it for our business,” he told
CNN.


Ford said the investment in Flat Rock will create 700 new jobs, in part to build a new small fully-electric SUV that will be on sale by 2020.



The news also puts Trump’s earlier Tweet slamming GM for building some Cruze models in Mexico into context. As
CNN points out, via Twitter, Trump was informed this morning about Ford’s move in Mexico.


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