Gregson Mathe
It looks like Ford is about turn 2017 on its head and we’re only 3 days in to the new year.
Reports are coming in this morning that Ford has just announced they will create 700 new jobs due to the “pro-business environment” that President-Elect Donald Trump has created after his stunning win over Hillary Clinton in the November presidential election.
https://twitter.com/Ford/status/816320729415176192
Mustang and F150 Hybrid?
What’s important to note is that they did not break a deal with Trump to do this. CEO Mark Fields said that this was their own doing.
“We didn’t cut a deal with Trump. We did it for our business,” Fields told CNN’s Poppy Harlow in an exclusive interview Tuesday.
But the real news here is that Ford will invest $700 million in it’s Flat Rock, Michigan plant to build F-150s and Mustangs. And they will both be…hybrids!?
The $700 million investment will go to the Flat Rock, Michigan plant to produce more electric and self-driving cars. Ford believes electric vehicles will outsell gasoline-powered vehicles within the next 15 years.
Ford is planning to roll out seven new electric vehicles in the next five years, including a Mustang Hybrid.
This also comes as a shock as Ford said they would invest $1.6 billion in Mexican operations. Now it seems that is completely off the table and they’re canceling that project in it’s entirety.
The news is a major U-turn for Ford. Last year, the company announced it would invest $1.6 billion in Mexico to transfer the production of the Ford Focus from Michigan to Mexico to save costs. Now the Focus will be built at an existing plant in Hermosillo, Mexico, and Ford will expand its plant in Flat Rock
“This is a vote of confidence” in Trump and the economy, said Fields. We are “encouraged by pro growth policies, particularly reform around tax and regulatory policies.”
The F-150 is built in the US and this news no doubt means that they will have a hybrid F-150 in the future, but the hybrid Mustang is a shocker. What will become of the V8 GT variant? Will the top end of the Mustang range be a hybrid V6 offering like we are seeing in other cars like the new Acura NSX? Is For about to turn the Mustang into a supercar to compliment their newly christened GT?
WHAT IS GOING ON!?
(Source: CNN)
UPDATE: 12:30pm EST
It’s was announced on Ford’s media website that the F150 and Mustang, as well as a Transit, will receive hybrid variants that will arrive by 2020.
- A hybrid version of the best-selling F-150 pickup available by 2020 and sold in North America and the Middle East. The F-150 Hybrid, built at Ford’s Dearborn Truck Plant, will offer powerful towing and payload capacity and operate as a mobile generator
- A hybrid version of the iconic Mustang that will deliver V8 power and even more low-end torque. The Mustang Hybrid, built at the Flat Rock Plant, debuts in 2020 and will be available in the North America to start
- A Transit Custom plug-in hybrid available in 2019 in Europe engineered to help reduce operating costs in even the most congested streets
More news on this story as we have it.
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