Talking to investors in Dearborn, Michigan on Wednesday, Fields said the move was part of the plan to make production simpler and less costly.
“Over the next two to three years, we will have migrated all of our small-car production to Mexico and out of the United States,” Fields said, according to the Detroit Free Press.
It’s no big secret that vehicle manufacturers have been struggling for years to make a profit on small cars and hatchbacks, and with the American consumer favoring pickups, SUVs, and crossovers, this move was to be expected and it’s not a surprise, either.
In 2015, Ford said it planned on moving production of its Ford Focus and C-Max cars to another country by 2018. Then, in April this year, it was announced that Ford was investing $1.6 billion in building a new production plant in Mexico, and this would create 2,800 jobs so it can build small cars there.
Fox News is citing the fact that presidential candidate Donald Trump has criticized Ford for moving jobs to Mexico and taking work away from Americans, but Ford countered, saying that as a global company, it has to compete by making sound business decisions. The Trump campaign did not respond to a request by Fox News for a comment.
The Ford Focus and C-Max are the only two small cars that Ford still assembles in the U.S. The company’s Ford Fiesta subcompact is already being produced in Mexico, and the high-performance Ford Focus RS is made in Germany. After the move in production is complete, the Wayne, Michigan plant will start producing other Ford vehicles, so there will be no loss of jobs.
CNN-Money is reporting that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) sells two small cars in the U.S., the Dodge Dart and the Fiat 500. By the end of September, FCA will stop producing the Dart, which is made in Illinois. This will leave them with the Fiat 500, and it’s already being made in Mexico.
