成本比爱国重要,福特汽车要把工厂搬到中国
Ford is canceling controversial plans to build the Focus small car in Mexico, saving $1 billion by ending North American production entirely and importing the model mostly from China after next year.
尽管极具争议,福特汽车仍将取消原定计划,不在墨西哥建立福克斯小型车工厂。福特汽车通过终止北美的车辆生产,并于2019年开始从中国大量进口汽车模型省下了十亿美元。
The U.S. automaker 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 will trim about $500 million in costs by shifting production to China, adding to the $500 million already saved from canceling construction of a small-car factory in Mexico earlier this year.
2018年福特将停止其密歇根工厂的运作,从2019年下半年开始,在中国生产新一代福克斯汽车。将生产工厂转移至中国将为福特减少五亿美元的成本,除此之外,今年年初,停建墨西哥小型车工厂也为福特省下了五亿美元。
“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 in a conference call with reporters Tuesday. “iPhones are produced in China, for example, and people don’t really talk about it.”
福特全球运营总裁韩瑞麒(Joe Hinrichs)在本周二的会议上告诉记者:“我们做过很多调查,比起汽车的源产地,消费者更在意车的质量和价格。比如Iphone也是在中国生产的,但是没人会就此喋喋不休。”
After importing initial production of the new Focus cars from China, Ford said it will later ship variants of the model from Europe. The Michigan Assembly Plant now making the Focus will be retooled to produce the Ranger midsize pickup in late 2018 and the Bronco midsize SUV in 2020.
福特汽车已经从中国进口了首批全新生产的福克斯汽车,并表示随后将从欧洲运入更多不同型号。正在生产福克斯的密歇根流水工厂将重组,于2018年晚些时候开始生产Ranger中型皮卡,2020年投入生产Bronco中型SUV。
“China gets a lot of attention, we’ll see how this plays out,” Hinrichs said in response to a question about possible criticism of the move from Trump. “But we believe this is a much better plan for our business globally. And it frees up from the original plan about $1 billion of capital that we can reinvest in the business, including exciting things that we’re working on in autonomy and electrification, and a lot of that work is done right here in the U.S.”
特朗普可能会对福特汽车转移工厂的举动颇有微辞,对此疑虑,韩瑞麒也做出了回应:“世界都在关注中国,我们也将试试这样的转移是否有用。但是值得确信的是,转移工厂对福特汽车的全球运营有益无害。取消原计划,不在墨西哥建厂为我们省下了十亿美元,我们可以把这笔钱投资在自主、电气化这样很酷的领域,或者投资很多能在美国完成的事情。”