'Uncertainty' is one of the things that keeps Hinrichs up at night – and not just in the U.S. Ford recently announced a series of job and plant cuts abroad.
Ford Motor Co. is investing $900 million to set up both a battery-car plant — its second — and an autonomous vehicle center in Southeast Michigan, not far from its headquarters in the suburb of Dearborn.
Like its rivals, the second-largest Motor City automaker is facing a variety of challenges. Sales have been sliding in the U.S., European operations are losing money, and Ford is reportedly considering a major shake-up of its Indian operations, to name just a few challenges Hinrichs has to handle. Now, add the threats posed by the Trump Administration's trade wars — tariffs on aluminum and steel last year alone adding $1 billion in costs.
Along with instant torque, there's the smoothness and quietness of the ride, the low center of gravity. There are fewer moving parts, so reliability [should be better]. And the way you can use the package gets more efficient because you don't have all that stuff in the engine compartment up front. Hinrichs: We made the announcement on partnering on vans and trucks outside North America. Those conversations, I would say, went very well. There's a good matching up of needs and strengths. We're very excited about that alliance. We signed an MoU about continuing to have discussions on other topics, and those conversations are going well. There's a good alignment and the talks are going well, which is as far as I can go.
Hinrichs: I would say that it's gone further than I estimated it would and it is still going. There are a few key contributors. The [light trucks] we offer today don't have the compromises they did in the 1990s. Now, you don't have to give up the ride comfort and the relative difference in fuel economy has diminished significantly.
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