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Last Minute: Ford will triple the production of the electric Mustang in Cuautitlán from 2023

Ford will triple the production of its Mustang Mach-E electric model at the plant in Cuautitlán, State of Mexico. Starting in January 2023, it will go from 70,000 units to just over 200,000 a year.

Demand for the model has been higher than expected since Ford unveiled it in late 2019 at the Los Angeles, California auto show . This motivated the corporation to reinvest in the Mexican plant to expand production just two years after the first unit of the model came out.

This year Ford raised its investment for the development of batteries and electric vehicles to 50,000 million dollars from the 30,000 million it had projected in May 2021. Although the manufacturer has not specified what percentage of this money will be invested in Mexico, the directors assured that the country is on the map.

“I can’t say how much, but of course a volume of that is coming here. When you expand production you have to open new shifts, you have to hire people, add machines, expand warehouses,” says Lucien Pinto, director of sales and marketing for Ford of Mexico.

The Mexican plant was the first Ford plant in the world to assemble an electric model from the American manufacturer. It started with one shift and a production volume of 300 units per day that was soon outstripped by demand.

Sales of the Mustang Mach-E began in late 2019 in the United States, “but the demand was much higher than we expected,” Pinto said. And Ford did not reject any of the purchase requests that originated. “It was the production we had planned for two years,” he added.

From the Mexican plant, Ford supplies North America and Europe. Another plant in China produces Mach-E models for its local market. The automaker has the plan to produce 600,000 electric units in 2023, of which 270,000 will correspond to the electric Mustang. Of these, around 80% will be assembled in Mexico, the rest in China.

The increase in production, which will imply the addition of more shifts and the generation of more jobs in the complex, is due to the arrival of the model in new markets, Mexico among them.

With the pre-sale of the first 100 units of the Mustang Mach-E GT Performance version, the American manufacturer gave the starting signal for the marketing of the model in the country. These first units, which arrive at a price of 2 million pesos each, will be followed by other more affordable versions towards the end of the year.

Ford is not sure how many models it will be able to sell its electric in Mexico, but it does not anticipate a large volume. “For now it will be more of a niche model,” Pinto said.

In other more advanced markets in charging infrastructure and incentives, such as Norway, the Mexican manufacturing model is already a best seller . Despite some early delivery delays, the Mach-E became that country’s best-selling car in its first full month on sale there in May. In June he retained that title in July.

“We were in Norway last week and saw several Mach-E’s rolling down the street. We all thought: those were made in Cuautitlán,” Pinto said.

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