Ford is Sending Focus Production to China
Made In China
Starting in 2019, Ford will move production of the Focus to a plant in China. Why you may ask? Because smaller cars aren’t selling. Ford hopes to free up production plant capacity for vehicles that are selling better here in the U.S., such as the Ford F-Series. Within the span of 15 months, the automaker went from planning to build a $1.6 billion plant in Mexico to produce the next-gen Focus to wedging production in an already-established Mexican plant to completely scrapping Mexico to consolidate Focus production in China in an effort to cut costs.
The move is a sharp fall for the compact, fuel-efficient model that was once a major part of Ford’s U.S. lineup. Sales continue to dwindle and show no signs of bouncing back. Because of this, Ford has decided to go a year without producing a single Focus vehicle in North America. Production will officially come to a halt in North America at the Michigan facility in mid-2018, and production in China will not start until mid-2019.
