Ford Motor Co was a target of US president-elect Donald Trump’s criticism on the campaign trail for building cars in Mexico, and now that Trump will be president, Ford said it is willing to work with him to keep jobs in the US — provided Trump puts the right policies in place.
“We will be very clear in the things we’d like to see,” Ford CEO Mark Fields said in an exclusive interview on Friday at Bloomberg offices in Southfield, Michigan.
Among them, according to Fields: currency manipulation rules to promote free and fair trade, tax reform and safety guidelines for autonomous vehicles.
Ford plans to lobby Trump to soften US and state fuel economy rules, Fields said, adding that they hurt profits by forcing automakers to build more electric cars and hybrids than are warranted by customer demand.
“In 2008, there were 12 electrified vehicles offered in the US market and it represented 2.3 percent of the industry,” Fields said. “Fast forward to 2016, there’s 55 models, and year to date it’s 2.8 percent.”
This is not exactly a formula for success, he said, adding: “At the end of the day, you’ve got to have customers, so obviously, there would be pressure on the business if there’s not a market.”
The No. 2 US automaker was one of the companies Trump singled out on the campaign trail for sending production to Mexico, threatening to slap a 35 percent tariff on cars Ford builds south of the border and ships back to the US.
After the Nov. 8 election, Trump called Ford executive chairman Bill Ford to discuss the automaker’s plan to move production of the Lincoln MKC sport utility vehicle to Mexico from a plant in Louisville, Kentucky, Fields said, adding that the discussion helped convince Ford to keep building the Lincoln MKC in the US.
Trump influenced the decision “because of what he’s talking about in terms of his economic policies, whether it’s tax reform or otherwise,” Fields said.
Ford received no incentives to keep Lincoln MKC production in Kentucky, but the automaker never planned to close that Louisville plant, which also builds the Escape sport utility vehicle that outsells the Lincoln MKC by 12-to-1.
Ford already makes the Lincoln MKZ sedan and the Fusion family car in Mexico. It is building a US$1.6 billion small car factory in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi, which is to create 2,800 jobs there by 2020.
However, Ford still plans to move production of its Focus compact and C-Max hybrid to Mexico from a Michigan factory.
Fields said that he did not know whether Trump would carry through with his campaign pledge to impose the tariff on Ford’s Mexican-built cars, but he said he doubted it would be applied to just one company.
“It would be imposed on the entire industry, not just singling out a single company,” Fields said. “When you look at the production and supply chains and how they’re integrated between the three countries” — Mexico, Canada and the US — “putting a tariff on that would have a negative impact on all the economies.”
Ford is the fifth-largest producer of vehicles in Mexico, while it is the top automotive manufacturer in the US, the company said, adding that it has added nearly 28,000 jobs in the US over the past five years.
Ford employs 85,000 workers in the US and 8,800 in Mexico.
Ford would continue its dialogue with Trump, Fields said, adding that the auto industry might seek clean air credits for self-driving cars, which could reduce fuel consumption and emissions by helping traffic move more smoothly.
Despite the regulatory uncertainty, Ford has made no change in its plan to invest an additional US$4.5 billion in electrified vehicles by 2020 and to install this technology in 40 percent of its nameplates, Fields said.
Ford wants to continue to help boost fuel economy and lessen the industry’s environmental impact, because the company acknowledges climate change as a serious threat, Fields said.
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