(Quality Digest: Chico, CA) – On Jan. 3, 2017, Ford Motor Co. announced plans to invest $700 million to expand its Flat Rock Assembly Plant in Michigan into a factory that will build high-tech autonomous and electric vehicles. The expansion will create 700 direct new jobs. The announcement was welcome news for U.S. workers as it changes Ford’s earlier plans to build a new manufacturing plant in San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

“We are encouraged by the pro-growth policies that president elect Trump and the new congress have indicated they will pursue. We believe that these tax and regulatory reforms are critically important to boost U.S. competitiveness and drive resurgence in American manufacturing and high-tech innovation,” explains Mark Fields, Ford president and CEO. "All of these factors, coupled with segmentation shifts that we’re seeing in the marketplace, and our effort to fully utilize the capacity at existing facilities have prompted us to invest in Flat Rock’s expansion and to cancel building a new plant in Mexico.”

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