In fairness, they'll be retooling these factories to produce other Ford cars. And in fairness, that retooling will probably lead to a net decrease of jobs anyway.
US factories which originally lost Focus will make SUV & trucks which are more profitable than smaller cars.
However if it was be made in Mexico the Focus would have a lot more US content for components than if in China. Depending on vehicle anywhere from 20-40% of content would have been US origin.
The Focus joins the Buick Envision as another Big 3 car that will be imported from China. Naturally the car will be underpromoted given that status and Ford's role in the small car field will be eroded.
Ford was already making Focus in China but not Mexico so I think they are banking on low gas prices and a fairly flat market demand overall (roughly 17M seasonally adjusted for next 3-4 years).
If the new US Ranger & Bronco do not do well though Ford could be in a tough spot.
The F-150's aluminum body development took a lot of money and has limited their innovation elsewhere.
At least the industry experts say though not killed the potentially crippling Border Adjustment Tax is on the backburner. In that suppliers have diversified to support all North American makers domestic or imported the impact would be immense. Particularly as the market has tailed off, incentive sales are so high and loan periods so long.
