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Ford pausing work on $3.5 billion Michigan electric vehicle battery plant
CNN ^ | 9/26/23 | Peter Valdes-Dapena

Posted on 09/26/2023 3:30:04 AM PDT by CFW

Ford is pausing work on a new, $3.5 billion electric vehicle battery plant in Michigan, even as the transition to electric vehicles has become a major sticking point in a United Auto Workers strike against automakers Ford, GM and Stellantis.

No final decision has been made on whether the plant will, ultimately, become operational, said Ford spokesman T.R. Reid.

If completed, the plant will be located on a 950-acre site in southern Michigan near the town of Marshall. Ford’s plans were to employ 2,500 people when the plant opened for production in 2026. Ford had had announced plans for the battery factory last February.

“We’re pausing work and limiting spending on construction on the Marshall project until we’re confident about our ability to competitively operate the plant,” said Reid in an emailed statement. “There are a number of considerations.”

Ford, along with General Motors and Stellantis, is currently facing a strike by the United Auto Workers. Reid would not say whether the UAW contract negotiations were among the considerations mentioned.

In a statement posted to X (formerly Twitter), UAW President Shawn Fain called the decision “a shameful, barely-veiled threat by Ford to cut jobs.”

“Closing 65 plants over the last 20 years wasn’t enough for the Big Three, now they want to threaten us with closing plants that aren’t even open yet,” he said in the statement. “We are simply asking for a just transition to electric vehicles and Ford is instead doubling down on their race to the bottom.”

Because assembly of electric vehicles takes significantly less labor than building gasoline-powered vehicles, the union is concerned that the automakers’ plans to eventually shift to all-electric lineups will eventually mean more job losses and smaller paychecks. Job security, in fact, has become a major issue in negotiations.

(Excerpt) Read more at lite.cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Politics/Elections; US: Michigan
KEYWORDS: batteries; evs; ford; michigan
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Is Ford deciding they have lost enough money on producing EVs that the people have decided they do not want?
1 posted on 09/26/2023 3:30:04 AM PDT by CFW
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To: CFW

Hope this is a win for automakers...but somehow I feel Biden will say....wait...we’ll give you lotsa money so you won’t be losing money...but really you will still be losing money money. It’s kinda like having a second set of books....he chuckled.


2 posted on 09/26/2023 3:36:05 AM PDT by Sacajaweau ( )
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To: Sacajaweau

Whoops...”hope it’s a win for the WORKERS.”


3 posted on 09/26/2023 3:36:57 AM PDT by Sacajaweau ( )
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To: CFW

I told the salesman at my local dealership(Chrysler) that it’ll be a cold day in hell before I buy an electric vehicle. If necessary, I’ll buy Toyota who still plans to keep some ICE vehicles around.


4 posted on 09/26/2023 3:37:11 AM PDT by EvilCapitalist (81 million votes my ass.)
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To: EvilCapitalist

EV’s will replace ICE vehicles right after Wine Coolers replace Beer.


5 posted on 09/26/2023 3:37:49 AM PDT by MMusson
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To: MMusson

“EV’s will replace ICE vehicles right after Wine Coolers replace Beer”

LOL mic drop funny


6 posted on 09/26/2023 3:41:49 AM PDT by reviled downesdad (Some of the lost will never believe the Truth and will hate you for it.)
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To: CFW

My guess is that overseas slave labor is at the top of their list.


7 posted on 09/26/2023 3:45:15 AM PDT by xzins (Retired US Army chaplain. Support our troops by praying for their victory. )
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To: reviled downesdad

Funny, but there are PLENTY of Chinese workers who very much want to make the very best, very cheapest, very safest car … right now.

All that is needed is for them to say … ok let’s send them


8 posted on 09/26/2023 3:50:19 AM PDT by cba123 (Tôi là người Mỹ. Hiện tôi đang ở Việt Nam)
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To: CFW

Ford coming to it’s senses? A boondoggle too far? Ford may sense a coming regime change that will no longer subsidize the crazy push for EV production ( EVs that no one wants).


9 posted on 09/26/2023 3:54:29 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: CFW

For me, this is the first reporting by fake news

...is the transition to electric vehicles has become a major sticking point in a United Auto Workers strike...


10 posted on 09/26/2023 4:00:20 AM PDT by Steven Tyler
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To: CFW
I'm holding out for the Ford Pride EV Raptor...otherwise known as a battery-powered sexual pleasure device...


11 posted on 09/26/2023 4:10:03 AM PDT by moovova ("The NEXT election is the most important election of our lifetimes!“ LOL...)
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To: CFW

In order to manufacture batteries for vehicles one need a lot of cobalt. I recommend everyone research cobalt mining. To understand why battery factories start and stop here in America. Unmentioned problems with raw materials.


12 posted on 09/26/2023 4:20:43 AM PDT by exnavy (Grow your faith, and have the courage to use it.)
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To: CFW
From June, related...?

Ford agrees to $9.2 billion US government loan

13 posted on 09/26/2023 4:25:16 AM PDT by mewzilla (Never give up; never surrender!)
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To: MMusson

In all fairness those Jack Daniels Coke drinks are pretty damn good,


14 posted on 09/26/2023 4:33:32 AM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie
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To: moovova
otherwise known as a battery-powered sexual pleasure device...

A girl said, yeah and the battery will run out just when it's needed the most.

15 posted on 09/26/2023 4:54:36 AM PDT by BlackbirdSST (Trump or Bust! Long live the Republic.)
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To: CFW

I don’t understand this EV idiocy in the traditional sense.

I understand it in the consumer sense, in the engineering sense, etc., but in the traditional sense, in the infrastructure sense it completely and totally baffles me.

In the traditional sense, I think things like: “California, and other states want to ban the sale of ALL ICE vehicles by 2035. There are even people advocating that the deadline be moved up. How can they do this without the infrastructure in place, the charging stations, the battery manufacture, but most importantly, the energy creation infrastructure and the transmission infrastructure? How? How can they do this, it is the equivalent of running full speed towards a cliff, the whips on our backs, and...simply...jumping off. It will be a disaster, the economy will fully fail, and millions of people are going to be destitute as a result. How? How can any thinking person advocate this approach?”

So, I have to think of it all un-traditionally.

I have to throw out the notion that they want it to work. The idea that they want the infrastructure in place. The idea that they believe better technology is a move forward.

When I do that, and think in un-traditional terms, the only thing that makes any sense at all is that the people pushing this know full well what it will do to the economy and the people who work in that economy.

They WANT it to happen.

They WANT it to fail in the sense of what we view as “useful technology” and advances.

They are pushing this, not for any stupid and insane climate impact reason. They are doing this to control the movement of people, to isolate them from the greater population. And they are doing it to destroy society and the consumer economy so they can “rebuild” it in their image of what it should be.

And their image of what it “should be” is smaller, fewer people, less freedom, and greater government control.


16 posted on 09/26/2023 5:01:09 AM PDT by rlmorel ("If you think tough men are dangerous, just wait until you see what weak men are capable of." JBP)
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To: CFW; All

Trump’s message will resonate. “Pause” away! They need to get it and vote for thr policies that will help.


17 posted on 09/26/2023 5:05:33 AM PDT by wiseprince (Me)
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To: rlmorel

All of these EV pushers on FR, we know who they are, are usefull idiots in the march towards automtive and economic insanty.


18 posted on 09/26/2023 5:06:14 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: CFW

Shawn Fein really wants to finished his job of getting automakers out of the USA.
UAW car jobs are down 90% since late 70ties.
Shawn is going to eliminate the reminding 10%.


19 posted on 09/26/2023 5:12:08 AM PDT by AZJeep
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To: cba123

f u


20 posted on 09/26/2023 5:12:10 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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