When the first American-built Ford Fusion rolled off the assembly line at a Ford plant in suburban Detroit today, it marked more than the start of expanded availability for the popular new version of the mid-size sedan, more than the addition of 1,400 jobs, and more than a complete return to the Ford fold of a plant that for the last several years had been making Mazdas under a partnership.
The short ride for the first car also represented the biggest manifestation yet of a re-Americanization of the auto industry that is reshaping the business around the globe.
For Ford, expanding production of Fusion at its plant in Flat Rock, Mich. was an easy decisionfrom an operational point of view. Sales of the restyled new version of the car grew by 13 percent for the first seven months of 2013 compared with a year earlier, but Ford actually has been losing sales lately because its plant in Hermosillo, Mexico, hasn't been able to supply enough new Fusions to the US market.
In fact, Fusion is selling in fewer than 20 days in key markets such as Los Angeles and Miami, compared with the ideal industry inventory level of about 60 days. And its high-end Titanium version is turning even faster in many cities, indicating that American consumers are willing to pay extra for all the available amenities even while enjoying the car's 28-mpg combined fuel economy. The Fusion Hybrid notches 47 mpg in combined driving.
So adding a Fusion line to Flat Rock, to join Mustang production that already occurs there, will boost Fusion capacity by 30 percent a year. And as Ford attempts to catch up Fusion with the pace-setting nameplate in the segment, the Toyota Camry, it may need every bit of that new capacity. Extra employees at the plant also will help produce the new version of Mustang that is expected next year.
"Fusion has exceeded all expectations, with demand outstripping supply," Joe Hinrichs, Ford president of the Americas, said in a press release.
But the expansion of output at Flat Rock also represents just the latest addition of capacity by most automakers on American shores. Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai and Subaru are among the foreign automakers that are boosting production and jobs in the United States in addition to Ford, General Motors and Chrysler.
Fueled by moderation of labor costs, favorable currency differentials, the relative strength of US auto sales and other factors, it all amounts to a fundamentally strong position in carmaking production the likes of which America hasn't enjoyed for decades.
For Ford, the new Fusion line at Flat Rock also gets the company more than 75 percent of the waytoward its goal of creating 12,000 hourly jobs in the US by 2015.
In the annals of win-win propositions for American industry and workers, the new Fusions coming off the line in Michigan are about as victorious as they get.
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