Ford employee Karen Hannon on the MKC Louisville assembly line.
In a terse statement at the end of last week, Ford Motor Company said it confirmed “with the President-elect Trump that, with his support, our small Lincoln utility vehicle made at the Louisville Assembly Plant will stay in Kentucky.
“We are encouraged that President-elect Trump and the new Congress will pursue policies that will improve U.S. competitiveness and make it possible to keep production of this vehicle here in the United States,” Ford said.
Trump used twitter to say that he recorded a hard-won victory for American autoworkers by persuading Ford to keep a Lincoln plant in Louisville, Ky., rather than move it to Mexico. Well, not quite. All Ford had said was that it was moving the Lincoln MKC – a compact crossover built off the Ford Escape architecture to Mexico.
Ford Motor said it made the decision before Donald Trump spoke by phone on Thursday with William Clay Ford Jr., the company’s executive chairman.
The Louisville plant will continue Ford Escapes, along with the Lincoln MKC for the moment. No jobs were created, and given the overheated compact SUV market, no jobs were saved.
