Many car manufacturing companies looking to invest in building factories in Mexico, despite Pres. Elect Donald Trump's policy on imported cars in which a 35 percent tax will be slapped on vehicles made in Mexico and shipped to the United States. BMW and General Motors (GM) are just two of the companies that have factories in Mexico.
In a tweet directly criticizing GM, Pres. Elect Trump (@realDonaldTrump) said "General Motors is sending Mexican-made model of Chevy Cruze to US car dealers tax-free across border. Make in USA or pay big border tax!". Toyota Motors is also one other that company Pres. Elect Trump openly criticized in his tweet with the same message as they announced the building of a new factory in Mexico to build Corolla cars for the U.S.
Meanwhile, Fiat Chrysler Automotive (FCA) recently announced that it would invest $1 Billion in a manufacturing plant in Michigan and Ohio while Ford Motors will expand in Michigan instead of building a new plant in Mexico. This investment by FCA will look to modernize their two existing plants in the Midwest United States which will create 2,000 new jobs. This may also result in the production of their Ram Pick-up truck to be moved to the U.S. from Mexico. According to FCA Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne, this investment had already been planned for a long period of time as per Reuters.
According to Fortune, the $1.6 billion plant in Mexico was canceled in part due to the constantly dropping sales of small cars, as well as the policies of Pres. Trump as per Ford's president of the Americas, Mark Fields. Ford will continue to produce the Ford Focus in Mexico, including the production of the next-generation compact Focus car. This decision, however, allows the company to invest their money somewhere else. They will put in about $700 million into their Michigan plant to produce a fully electric SUVs and high-volume autonomous hybrid vehicles.
