As Ford launches the 2021 model of their F-150 truck, the automaker also announced plans to add 300 jobs at a new plant in Michigan for the upcoming electric version of the vehicle.
"Overall, we are very, very committed to a strong manufacturing base in America and continue to create jobs literally every day," said Kumar Galhotra, president of the Americas and international markets group at Ford Motor Company.
The F-series pickup is the top-selling vehicle in the U.S. and the company says the electric version will be available in 2022. The newly-announced plant at the Rouge factory complex in Dearborn, Michigan, will be a $700 million investment to build the new vehicles.
Galhotra also said 300 jobs will be added with the new plant, and more broadly, the current union contract running through 2023 will have the carmaker adding nearly 8,000 jobs. A nearby assembly plant for the Ford Bronco is expected to add 2,000 jobs.
Aside from the all-electric F-150, the Ford executive underscored the company's commitment to EVs, citing the upcoming Mustang Mach-E SUV in 2020 and the Transit cargo van also expected to arrive in 2022 as examples. Galhotra also noted Ford's partnership with another EV company, Rivian, and other commitments to an electric future.
"We are working with Rivian to build a vehicle on the Rivian platform, but we're also working our own platforms, which is what the F-150 battery-electric vehicle will be based on," he said. "And of course we are partnering with Volkswagen in Europe to build passenger vehicles on their MEB platform."
Galhotra also commented on the current state of demand for Ford vehicles amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"Late in March, early April, the demand went down substantially, both for retail and for commercial and fleet vehicles, but it has rebounded very nicely," he noted. "We continue to see gains week after week, so I would say the demand is pretty strong both for us as well as the total industry."
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
