It seems that Ford Motor Company will make good on rumors from last month, erecting a new production facility in the state of San Luis Potosí, Mexico to increase production in the country. According to The Wall Street Journal, that new plant – along with an expansion of the automaker’s existing Cuautitlán Izcalli facility – will add some 500,000 units to Ford’s total annual production capacity in Mexico.
The forthcoming Ford Motor Company assembly complex in San Luis Potosí will have an annual cap of about 350,000 automobiles ever year, while the Cuautitlán Izcalli plant will add another 150,000 units of capacity. Last year, Ford Motor’s total production tally in Mexico was around 433,000 units – less than half of the 500,000 additional capacity promised by the investments.
According to WSJ, labor wages in Mexico are roughly one-fifth of what UAW-represented workers are paid in the United States – a major contributing factor to the country’s appeal. Even still, Mexico only accounted for roughly 14 percent of Ford Motor Company’s 2015 production, and the automaker has committed to invest some $9 billion in US production by 2020.
It’s suspected that one of these two Mexican Ford Motor facilities will inherit production of the Focus when it leaves the Michigan Assembly Plant in 2018, while two new models are reportedly on the way, including a new hybrid or plug-in to compete directly with the Toyota Prius.
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