Ford to import Focus from China

Ford is cancelling controversial plans to build the Focus small car in Mexico, saving $1bn by ending North American production entirely and importing the model from China.

Ford is cancelling controversial plans to build the Focus small car in Mexico, saving $1bn by ending North American production entirely and importing the model mostly from China after 2018.

The US car maker will start making the next-generation Focus in China from the second half of 2019, a year after output ends at one of its plants in Michigan. Ford’s savings will come from cancelling plans to assemble the car at an existing factory in Mexico and a decision made in January to abort construction of a plant in Mexico.

With its latest move, Ford has fully abandoned its strategy of relocating small-car production to Mexico, which had been announced in 2016 by then CEO Mark Fields.

The company will be testing consumer appetite for Chinabuilt cars and the tolerance of President Donald Trump, who has criticised car makers for importing vehicles.

“We’ve done a lot of research and consumers care a lot more about the quality and the value than they do about the sourcing location,” Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president of global operations, said on Tuesday.

Ford also said it was investing $900m at its Kentucky truck factory to build Expedition and Lincoln Navigator sport utility vehicles, preserving 1,000 jobs.

After importing initial production of the new Focus cars from China, Ford will later ship variants of the model from Europe, the company said. The Michigan assembly plant now making the Focus will be retooled to produce the Ranger midsize pick-up in late 2018 and the Bronco midsize sport utility vehicle in 2020.