The rumours have been increasing in number in recent weeks and now The Wall Street Journal claims to have information confirming that Ford will indeed build a new plant in Mexico.
The Journal’s report says the additional factory will be in San Luis Potosí, while an existing vehicle production facility close to Mexico City will be expanded, giving the company an additional half a million units of capacity per annum. One of these plants will be where the company’s future rival for the Toyota Prius will be built, the newspaper adds.
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PLDB, just-auto.com’s current and future models database, has had advance information on Ford’s Prius challenger for some time. The company was understood to have been planning to build the unnamed additional model at Wayne Assembly in Michigan at the rate of around 120,000 units per annum. Job 1 was due in late 2018 for North America’s 2019 model year. For North American markets, this model will be the effective replacement for the slow-selling C-MAX series. It would be a rival not only for the Prius and Prius PHEV but also the Hyundai Ioniq series. Production is now expected to be at either the soon to be expanded Cuautitlán plant, or should the Journal’s information prove accurate, at San Luis Potosí.
Like FCA US, Ford Motor Company has been seeking ways to shift production of small and compact cars out of the US and Canada and into Mexico. Higher margin SUVs would take the place of such models at US plants: the next Ford Focus should be an example of this strategy. Ford is believed to be planning to build this model south of the border, taking it out of Dearborn Assembly plant (Wayne, Michigan) and replacing it with the future Bronco SUV and Ranger pick-up.
An announcement concerning the expansion of its production facilities in Mexico is expected from Ford in the coming days. The Hermosillo plant in the northwestern state of Sonora is not expected to be part of the expansion. This facility produces the Ford Fusion and related Lincoln MKZ.
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