Romanian PM invites Ford to expand local production with eco, electric cars

Romania’s Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos, currently on a working visit to the US, visited Ford Motor Company’s research center in Dearborn, near Detroit, on Monday. There, the Prime Minister met with a group of Romanian engineers who work in Ford’s center, and had talks with Mark Fields - CEO Ford Motor Company, Ziad Ojakli - Ford group vice president for international relations, Stephen Biegun - vice president of international government relations, and Sarah Cartmell - director of international relations, according to a Government statement. During these talks, Ciolos invited Ford to develop and expand its production in Romania. “Under the law, the Romanian state will offer its full support to consolidate this investment. I believe that the opportunities are greater, and I invited Ford to think about the development and expansion of production with elements of innovative technology related to eco and electric cars, which we saw at their center of innovation that are the cars of the future,” Ciolos said. The Romanian Prime Minister also invited Ford to get involved in the organization of vocational education in Romania, for which the Government is preparing an appropriate institutional framework. Ciolos also had a working lunch with representatives of companies from Michigan that are interested in investing in Romania or are already active in the local market, such as Walbridge, Federal Mogul, Steelcase Inc, Kimball Electronics, Delphi, and Michigan Economic Development Corp. In an interview with local Digi24, Mark Fields, CEO Ford Motor Company, said that the company is currently in talks with the Romanian Government on improving the road and rail infrastructure near the local Ford plant in Craiova. “Today, if we take a look at the factory in Craiova, we see that it operates at a 90% capacity in terms of workforce. We may have other growth opportunities, but we want to be sure that we have the necessary infrastructure, not only for us but also for suppliers,” Fields said. Ford took over the car factory in Craiova, Romania, in 2008 and had invested over EUR 1 billion to support its operations here. The plant currently produces the B-Max model and the 1-liter EcoBoost engine. In 2015, Ford produced some 48,000 B-Max cars at Craiova, down from more than 52,800 units produced in 2014 and 68,339 cars in 2013. In March this year, Ford Europe CEO Jim Farley announced that the company would invest up to EUR 200 million in producing the EcoSport small SUV model in Romania. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com (photo source: Gov.ro)