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Miami Herald
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Miami Herald
Bill Ford says he has no plans to leave the family business
At a time of great uncertainty for the automotive industry, one thing is certain: Bill Ford, executive chairman of Ford Motor Co., says he plans to stay in his role for "a while." "Everybody has a sell-by date," Ford told reporters after a panel at the Detroit Regional Chamber's Mackinac Policy Conference. "But I also feel like, in many ways, I'm hitting my stride. I feel like I have the right combination of experience and energy to help provide leadership for the company for some time. "Will the day come when I won't feel that way?" he continued. "Yes, of course, and I have no idea when that is, but I'm not planning on it. It's not there yet." The comments from the 68-year-old great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford comes amid a historic transformation for the Blue Oval. It's seeking to balance continued demand for gas-powered vehicles and an electrified future, to transform its products into software-driven machines and to navigate a shifting environment when it comes to trade, regulations and incentives. Some might argue that such upheaval could demand new leadership, but Ford, who's been with the company since 1979 and has been executive chairman since 1999, underscored the importance of persisting values of the company, a familiar name and face for the corporation, and the intentionality behind long-term partnerships like Ford's 1977 joint venture in Turkey with Koç Holding with original relations dating to 1928. "We're not going to take golden parachutes and ride off into the sunset. We're here through thick and thin, and I feel like I've proven that over the last 25 years," Ford said. "It's really setting an intention for the future of where this company needs to go." But there are many obstacles in the way. The latest is the "big beautiful" budget bill that could remove production tax credits for electric vehicle battery manufacturers that were established in the Inflation Reduction Act that former President Joe Biden signed in 2022. Bill Ford confirmed losing that could imperil the $3 billion battery plant Ford is building in south-central Michigan's Marshall and the 1,700 jobs it's expected to create. "It needs to be kept in place, the production tax credit, that we have built the business case on Marshall around that," Ford said. "Politicians can agree or disagree on whether those kind of things are desirable, and that's fine, but don't change the rules once you've already made the investment, because that, to me, is just a question of fairness, and that's unfair." He added: "If it goes away, it really puts in peril the plant and the jobs in Michigan." Ford called for greater stability on policies in general from Washington, D.C., as the automotive industry has longer lead times to build product than political terms. He said the same is true in states like Michigan and voiced support for Mayor Mike Duggan, who is running as an independent for governor, because he "understands businesses and the decisions we face." Ford also noted the Ford family meets quarterly to discuss the company. Daughter Alexandra Ford English is a member of Ford's board and said she is in frequent contact with her father about the company's future. "We are always focused on the future," English said during the panel. "A lot of people think about family involvement as being protectors of the past, and that is absolutely not how we view our role. A lot of that stems from Dad and how he thinks about the company. But we just have such a rich opportunity set ahead of us. The industry is changing so rapidly, and so I'm really focused on everything that's going to come for our company." One example she pointed to when she came to the company in 2017 was texting her father pictures and videos of aging office buildings that needed repairs. The automaker has been investing in improvements to its buildings in Dearborn, including a new production development center slated to open later this year, as well as its $940 million advanced mobility campus in Corktown anchored by the restored Michigan Central Station. The company next week will announce the hotel brand that will occupy the top floors of the once-derelict, 1913-built former train depot. Already a Detroit destination ahead of the first anniversary of its reopening party on June 6, the station has become a hotspot for weddings, other events and visits by more than 300,000 people. "And there's really not much to see yet," Ford said. "We're going to announce the hotel next week." Michigan Central Innovation District LLC, the wholly owned subsidiary of Ford charged with running the campus, had sought zoning approval from the city for a hotel to occupy the never-used top floors. A year ago, the selection process had been down to a few finalist brands with the goal of a special hospitality solution for the landmark whose rooms wouldn't be inaccessible in price. Limited retail so far has opened in the station, including a location of the east-side coffee shop Yellow Light and Neighbor x Folk, a creation of Rohani Foulkes behind Detroit's James Beard-nominated cafe Folk. There also a souvenir shop for the station. Additionally, the depot in the fall became the headquarters of Ford's Model e electric vehicle division and occupied by Integrated Services software employees. The first occupant was a lab for Code Next, a computer science education program from Alphabet Inc.'s Google LLC for Detroit high school students. "People love working down there," English said. "It's just a much more urban feel than you get in some of our other buildings. And people coming from other cities want that." Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Bill Ford says Michigan battery plant ‘in peril' under proposed legislation
The executive chairman of Ford Motor Co. said its $2.5 billion electric vehicle battery factory in southwestern Michigan would be 'in peril' if it loses production tax credits as called for in proposed U.S. House legislation. The bill, which still must be reconciled by the Senate, could make the plant ineligible for a key manufacturing subsidy due to its ties to Chinese battery company CATL. If that were to happen, it would harm the business case in Marshall, said Bill Ford. 'We have built the business case on Marshall around that,' the chairman told reporters after a panel discussion at the Mackinac Policy Conference. 'My point is politicians can agree or disagree whether those kind of things are desirable, and that's fine. But don't change the rules once you've already made the investment, because that to me is just a question of fairness, and that's unfair.' The company likely will press hard to change the language of the final bill to ensure the factory, located about 107 miles West of Detroit and set to launch production next year, makes it to the finish line. While some lawmakers are seeking to keep tax credits away form 'foreign entities of concern,' as CATL is labeled in the proposed bill, the factory in Marshall would create 1,700 jobs and serve as an economic catalyst, the automaker and proponents has argued. Bill Ford said he is not sure whether the tax credits for the Marshall plant will ultimately be protected. 'I don't know the likelihood, but I do know that if it goes away, it puts in peril the plant and the jobs in Michigan,' he said. The chairman made the remarks after an on-stage interview alongside his daughter and Ford board member Alexandra Ford English at the Mackinac Policy Conference. The discussion, moderated by former TV anchor Christy McDonald, centered on the father-daughter dynamics in one of America's most famous family businesses. Bill Ford, great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford, is the automaker's fourth leader named Ford in its more than 120-year existence. English was elected to the automaker's influential board of directors in 2021, along with her cousin Henry Ford III, son of Edsel B. Ford II, a former board member and director at the company. English began her career in retail, working at Gap Inc. and Tory Burch. Even if she had wanted to jump straight from college to the automaker, her father wouldn't have allowed it. Bill Ford's rule is that family members cannot go right into the business. 'We cannot be a family employment agency,' Ford said. 'We want to make sure the young people that come into our company are incredibly well qualified and motivated.' Sign up for the quarterly Automotive News U.S. Sales report to get data and news sent to your inbox as soon as it's compiled. English served as an employee at the automaker from 2017 until June 2022, running operations for Ford's Autonomous Vehicle LLC before the company shut down efforts to develop a fully autonomous vehicle. She said the inspiration to work for the automaker started when her father would come home from work and talk to his family about his day. The family values and those of the company are one in the same, she said, making it a seamless cultural fit working for the automaker. 'Whenever he spoke about employees, it was always with deep respect, and that leaves an impression,' English said. 'I don't remember anything other than those values. It's all we know.' Ford said one characteristic English is never afraid to bring to the table – over family dinner or in the boardroom – is brutal honesty. That's important, the chairman said, because most others aren't willing to be that blunt with the boss. 'She's always the one that will sit me down and tell me what I don't want to hear,' he said. 'Not many people in life will do that. She's been the brave one.' On the topic of constantly shifting federal policy under President Donald Trump, the chairman said his company, expecting to take a $1.5 billion tariff hit this year, speaks with the White House on a near daily basis. Ford, which boasts the most U.S.-based vehicle production among its domestic counterparts, hopes the Trump administration and lawmakers recognize that when devising policy that could impact its Marshall factory and broader production plans. The company's decision to build more in the U.S. amounts to a $2,000 per vehicle 'penalty' compared to customers more exposed to foreign manufacturing, the chairman said. 'For us, it was the right decision to invest in America and pay that penalty,' he said. 'I don't regret that for a minute.' Have an opinion about this story? Tell us about it and we may publish it in print. Click here to submit a letter to the editor. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Miami Herald
5 days ago
- Automotive
- Miami Herald
Trade war with China highlights auto sector's need for rare-earth mineral supply
President Donald Trump's trade war with China underscores the importance of a reliable supply chain for the automotive industry of rare-earth minerals and magnets made from them that are necessary for parts from electric vehicle motors to windshield wipers and anti-lock braking systems. Rare earths describe 17 metallic elements with properties crucial for advanced technologies. Since a tax dispute shut down a rare-earth refinery in Vietnam over the past year, China effectively has had a monopoly on global heavy rare-earth elements processing and has major shares of processing for other rare earths. Retaliating against tariffs imposed last month by the Trump administration, China instituted new export restrictions and licensing requirements on seven medium and heavy rare-earth minerals, creating "dire" circumstances in the U.S. automotive industry if those rules are prolonged. "The rare earth materials from China - how they are imported, not just for us but for the entire industry - has become rather complicated over the last few weeks," Kumar Galhotra, Ford Motor Co.'s chief operating officer, said on a May 5 earnings call. "It would take only a few parts to potentially cause some disruption into our production." Trump reached a de-escalation agreement with China on May 12. For 90 days, the United States lowered its tariffs on China to 30% from 145%, and China decreased its tariffs to 10% from 125%. China also committed to removing non-tariff countermeasures imposed since April 2 against the United States, which included suspending export controls on rare earths to 28 mostly U.S. aerospace, defense and tech companies for 90 days. The licensing requirements, however, have remained in place. The de-escalation, though, seems to have helped smooth over some of the processes in obtaining those critical minerals, said Collin Shaw, president of vehicle supplier association MEMA's original equipment suppliers group. "It was a pretty dire situation there for a minute that the supply chain was struggling to get those out of China," Shaw recently told the Automotive Press Association. "The administration did a great job negotiating, getting some relief there, not only on the tariff level, but also ensuring that some of the components can flow a little bit easier." But automakers and suppliers say the situation still isn't comfortable. In a statement, German auto supplier Robert Bosch GmbH described the application process for importing rare earths for its suppliers as "complex and time-consuming - partly due to the collection and provision of a large amount of data," but declined to go into details on its supply and logistics chain for competitive reasons. "Rare earths are essential for the production of, in particular, electric motors for electric vehicles and some sensors," spokesperson Tim Wieland said in the statement. "In the event of bottlenecks, we monitor the supply chains very closely and maintain regular contact to our suppliers and customers in order to minimize potential effects." Chinese reliance Rare earths are not uncommon. Their deposits, however, tend to be dispersed and not in concentrated amounts, making them more difficult to mine. The United States is the world's second-largest miner of rare-earth minerals behind China, producing almost 50,000 tons in 2024 compared to China's almost 298,000 tons, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. China also has enormous influence because most of the world's refining and downstream magnet manufacturing is done there. Ian Lange, a Colorado School of Mines mineral economist, said although there's plenty of "good dirt" in the United States and across the globe with rare earths, there often are environmental concerns around their mining, especially when they are found with radioactive uranium. China also has subsidized its production, allowing domestic suppliers to supply the elements for cheap and stunting investment elsewhere. "Every time," Lange said, "a U.S. firm is like, 'Hey, we've got this good rare-earth dirt, and we think we found a processor who can make it into what you want. Here's how much we think it would cost,' all the firms who might buy them go, 'Yeah, that's about 20% more than China. We can't really risk that.' "Finding a little bit better dirt doesn't change the fundamental equation that you can't compete with these subsidized monopolies," Lange added. Automakers and others reliant on rare earths likely are stockpiling in case China suddenly tries to pull U.S. access, Lange said. But a Chinese cutoff could force supply chains to move and the government to provide aid - if the Trump administration and Republicans are willing to save a commodity largely used for EVs and wind energy. "I'm guessing there would be an all-hands-on-deck, start-running situation," Lange said. "Between our stockpiles, our allies like Europe and Australia, and us starting to run, sure, it would kind of suck. But it's probably not the end of the world." Michael Silver, CEO of California-based American Elements, an advanced materials manufacturer that supplies the auto sector and other industries, however, says closing off the supply of rare earths would benefit no one. American Elements has imported rare earths from China for decades. The firm has the licensing needed to do so for 2025, Silver said, and expects soon to hear back on certification for 2026. "We're waiting for the other shoe to drop after these permits come out," Silver told The Detroit News, "to see if they decide, based on what's going on between the two countries and all the other negotiations, whether they're going to start using it as a process to restrict export volume." China has done so before, Silver said, and it's also used different prices of rare earths in China and in international markets to encourage companies to invest within its borders. Rare earths were less expensive in China than outside of it. In response, the United States, European Union and Japan filed action with the World Trade Organization, which ordered China to reestablish global pricing again in 2015. "We need to get back to multinational negotiations," Silver said, "where America uses the marketplace that China definitely wants to be in as leverage to say you can't operate in this fashion." Trump, however, has balked largely at agreements with multiple countries, saying they disadvantage the United States by compromising on certain issues to accommodate more than one country. "A commodity market can be manipulated by the one nation that has the dominant share of the material, and that's the issue," Silver said. "If a sovereign monopoly decides they want to put you out of business, you will be put out of business unless you can find someone who's going to subsidize your operation." The U.S. auto industry is in a particularly vulnerable position, said Nadia Schadlow, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a think tank. The former U.S. deputy national security adviser for strategy said Chinese control of rare earths and rare earth processing means "a very important industry for the American economy can essentially be held hostage." "It's not surprising that the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) would want to use this as a form of leverage over the United States," Schadlow told The News. "They've done so in the past, even before the current tensions with President Trump over the current tariff discussions." But a total shutdown of rare-earths exports might not happen anytime soon, Schadlow said in an email, because Chinese officials want to maintain their leverage and keep options open with the United States. Other options Automakers like Ford have sought to reduce their use of rare earths. Some innovators like Niron Magnets in Minnesota, which has worked with General Motors Co. and Stellantis NV, are developing ways to produce magnets without rare earths. Others are taking on China. MP Materials in 2017 acquired an idled rare-earths mine in Mountain Pass, California, about 60 miles southwest of Las Vegas. Investing more than $1 billion in the United States, it has a facility there to separate and refine the materials, and a factory in Fort Worth, Texas, to produce metal and magnets from the elements. It's made its first deliveries of the metal to GM and expects to deliver magnets before the end of the year, which the Detroit automaker has said will be used in its EVs. GM also has an exclusive partnership with a Lithium Americas mine in Nevada and plans to source rare earth magnets from a South Carolina manufacturing plant owned by the German company Vacuumschmelze. "We'll continue to execute our plan to develop U.S. sources for battery cell and electric motor inputs like lithium, rare-earth metals, permanent magnets and cathode active materials," GM CEO Mary Barra said on a May 1 earnings call. China's April actions "effectively highlighted a major strategic weakness in that 90% plus or minus of rare earths that are made in China," Matt Sloustcher, MP Materials' executive vice president of corporate affairs, told The News. "It's an untenable supply-chain risk." A lack of investment and focus in the U.S. industry and cheaper operating costs in China contributed to the United States yielding the rare earths industry it developed to the Asian nation, Sloustcher said. Since April, with the world seeing the vulnerability of China having so much control, MP has had an avalanche of interest, he said. "With scale and time and investment, we'll be competitive," Sloustcher said, comparing expected costs to what Japan offers. "Magnets are being sold at roughly the cost of raw materials. That is a very difficult proposition to compete against in the United States. Our strategy is around resiliency and security of supply. When we build enough scale and efficiency where we can be competitive and combine our attributes to the supply chain, the value proposition is clear for the manufacturer." He added: "The reality is that if you don't have access to magnets, you're not making cars. That's a huge liability." Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Time of India
22-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
CEOs Mind Their Language to Avoid Landing on Trump's Radar
Hedge your language. Don't be too specific. Don't say " Trump ." For CEOs, speaking in public has become a tightrope walk. Say the wrong word, and it might tick off the White House . As companies start to feel the impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs, especially the 30% tax on Chinese goods, they have a responsibility to tell their investors how they will deal with the higher costs. For many companies, that means raising prices. But Trump, who insists that other countries are paying the tariffs, doesn't want to hear that. So executives are speaking even more delicately than usual, including on the perfunctory quarterly earnings calls that are normally of interest only to Wall Street. Since Trump's first term, corporate leaders have been wary of the president's habit of taking to social media and singling out companies and executives that he feels are working against his economic or political agenda. Live Events Trump's second term has brought a new intensity to the situation, according to crisis communication experts and consultants who work closely with chief executives. Mattel , Ford Motor Co., Amazon and Apple CEO Tim Cook have faced his ire in recent weeks. "Companies have got to reconcile with the fact that politics has penetrated nearly every element of their business and to bake those considerations in to prepare your CEOs," said Brett Bruen, president of Global Situation Room, a consulting firm based in Washington. And tariffs, a central pillar of Trump's economic policy, potentially hit squarely where it hurts companies the most: profits. Last week, on an earnings call with Wall Street analysts, Doug McMillon, Walmart's CEO, thanked Trump for reducing tariffs on China to 30% from 145%, but added that the retailer probably would not be able to "absorb all the pressure." The company's chief financial officer said in an interview on CNBC that Walmart planned to raise some prices starting this month. Days later, Trump wrote on Truth Social that "Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices." He went on to demand that China and Walmart, which is the largest retailer in the United States, "EAT THE TARIFFS." He ended with the warning: "I'll be watching, and so will your customers!" Executives across corporate America are heeding that warning. During quarterly earnings calls, on TV interviews and in meetings with investors, executives share details about their recent businesses performance and what obstacles may lie ahead. Analysts take in this information to build financial models, which help them gauge whether to buy or sell a company's shares. Tariffs are the topic du jour. Chief executives have a responsibility to investors to speak directly about the impact that tariffs are having on their business, said Stephan Meier, chair of the management division at Columbia Business School. Retailers are especially vulnerable to tariffs because they import a significant amount of goods from China. "This is on everybody's mind; this affects the business as very few things have in the past," Meier said. "You can't dance around it. You have to call it what it is." He said tailoring talk of tariffs in a way that avoided upsetting the Trump administration would not be "honest, authentic and transparent." But executives are finding that speaking too plainly has consequences. When Mattel released its earnings in early May, the maker of Barbie said it would raise prices on U.S. toys because of tariffs on imports from China, then totaling 145%. It also scrapped its financial forecast for the year, citing uncertainty over trade and tariff policies. Mattel's CEO, Ynon Kreiz, went on CNBC and was asked whether it would be cheaper for the company to manufacture toys in the United States. "We don't see that happening," he said. A few days later, in the Oval Office , Trump didn't hide his disdain for the Mattel boss. He threatened to impose a 100% tariff on Mattel's products, saying the company "won't sell one toy in the United States." He also said, "I wouldn't want to have him as an executive too long." Those advising CEOs in this fraught moment say they are telling leaders to describe the financial impacts of tariffs in the gentlest way possible. Talk about the "fluid" or "uncertain economic environment" without naming the White House policy that created those conditions, advisers suggest. Consult your government affairs person. Play up the opportunity to increase "productivity" rather than discussing the time and money spent figuring how to rejigger a company's global supply chain. And if something has to be said about tariffs, let the chief financial officer address it, not the chief executive. Even the word tariff itself is to be avoided, said Denise Dahlhoff, director of marketing and communications research at The Conference Board, a business group. "More neutral terms to use are 'sourcing cost' or 'input cost' or 'supply chain cost' -- they are not as incendiary as 'tariff,'" she said. Consultants said to expect to continue hearing a variety of euphemisms about tariffs and their impact on prices. On Tuesday, Home Depot 's chief financial officer, Richard McPhail, said the home-improvement retailer intended to "generally maintain our current pricing levels." Translation: The prices won't rise. Unless they have to. Executives at Target received a chorus of questions from analysts on their earnings call Wednesday about just how much tariffs would influence their business performance and prices. When listing possible strategies, executives put pricing changes at the end of their list. Brian Cornell, the retailer's CEO, said "price is the very last resort." That's a departure from how Cornell talked about tariffs in March when he clearly stated that fruit and vegetable prices would rise because of the tariffs then levied on Mexico. Analysts and consultants expect that retail executives in the coming weeks will try to avoid passing judgment on the tariffs during their calls with investors and analysts. "Are they afraid of Trump? The answer is yes," David Swartz , senior equity analyst at Morningstar, said. He added, "Nobody wants to be on his radar, and the relatively minor things that Walmart and Mattel said -- which are obvious -- he gets mad at them essentially for saying the truth about something that he caused." Fear, Swartz said, has made companies take the line "that tariffs are just a fact and this is what we're dealing with, rather than taking a side on whether they are good or bad." It's a prudent strategy for individual CEOs to not be confrontational, said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld , a Yale School of Management professor who is in frequent contact with corporate leaders. But if they want to influence political leaders, "they need collective action," he said. "Trade groups need to be confrontational with the facts," Sonnenfeld said, "or else the American public and legislators can't help them because they don't understand what's going on." Economic Times WhatsApp channel )
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Fact Check: Ford didn't shut down US production due to Trump's tariffs, nor did it move manufacturing overseas
Claim: Ford shut down U.S. production in May 2025 due to President Donald Trump's tariffs and relocated manufacturing operations overseas. Rating: A rumor that circulated online in May 2025 claimed Ford Motor Co. shut down U.S. production because of President Donald Trump's tariffs, and that it also relocated manufacturing operations overseas. However, searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo found no news media outlets reporting about the automaker halting domestic production or moving its operations abroad — either of which would be a major story. Instead, those searches displayed results for popular, advertisement-filled YouTube videos promoting the fabricated claim, including with artificial intelligence-generated scripting, voice narration and editing. Snopes contacted representatives for Ford about this matter and will update this article if they respond. The fictional rumor circulated in the days after Ford announced its first-quarter earnings on May 5, including reporting the expectation of a $1.5 billion tariff impact and withdrawing its 2025 financial guidance due to uncertainty about the future of U.S. trade. CNBC reported the automaker hasn't publicly announced any significant changes to its domestic manufacturing plans but has taken actions to mitigate tariff costs, including ceasing U.S. exports to China, adjusting China-made imports and other logistical changes. On May 7, a manager of the Auto Central YouTube channel (@AutoCentralYT) posted a video (archived) with the title "Ford SHUTS DOWN Production In US And Trumps Reaction Says It All!" The clip received more than 700,000 views, as of this writing. Neither the channel, the video nor the clip's text description included any disclaimers about its content being untrue. The clip's text description began: Ford CEO Jim Farley has just made a shocking announcement that has shook up the whole American auto sector. In reaction to newly elected US President Donald Trump's tough new tariffs on international trade partners, Ford has announced that it will shut down critical elements of its U.S. vehicle production and relocate operations overseas. These wide tariffs make it too expensive for foreign countries to continue purchasing American-made automobiles, trucks, and electric vehicles. As a result, Ford is being compelled to relocate manufacturing overseas, a significant step that might affect thousands of American workers and the future of American auto industry. Scans of the full text description with the AI-detection websites Copyleaks, Phrasly and ZeroGPT all concluded a user likely generated the text with AI. The video displayed an AI-generated thumbnail image of a "breaking news" chyron. The image depicted Ford president and CEO Jim Farley holding a sign reading "14,000 jobs lost & U.S. plants closed." The image also showed an angry Trump in front of an American flag and a Ford building in flames with the word "banned" stamped on top. (Auto Central/YouTube) In another example of the rumor spreading online, on May 18, the similarly-named Auto Edge YouTube channel (@AutoEdgeYoutube) posted a video (archived) with the same title. The clip had more than 600,000 views, as of this writing. No disclaimers about fictional content displayed alongside the video or anywhere in the channel's bio. The clip's thumbnail image displayed a fake Fox News "breaking news" chyron reading "Was this planned?" The image depicted Trump with his mouth open and a Ford factory with the words "Shuts down." (Auto Edge/YouTube) Users on Facebook (archived), TikTok (archived) and (archived) X (archived) shared these videos to further users. Previously, Auto Central, Auto Edge and other YouTube channels promoted videos falsely claiming other companies planned to shut down U.S. operations and move abroad, even though some of the brands have never conducted their primary business domestically. Those companies include Boeing, Jeep, Ram, General Motors, Chrysler, Dodge, John Deere, Nike, GMC, Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, Toyota, Nvidia, Porsche, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Walmart, Nissan, Honda and Harley-Davidson. Snopes contacted a manager for the Auto Edge YouTube channel by email to ask why they promote made-up content, among other questions, and will update this story if we learn more. The Auto Central channel did not provide any contact methods. For further reading, a previous fact check examined an untrue rumor claiming Ford planned to move four factories back to the U.S., along with 25,000 high-paying jobs, thanks to Trump's tariffs. Another rumor promoted by the Auto Central and Auto Edge YouTube channels also falsely claimed Amazon announced plans to move its headquarters outside the U.S. "AI Detector - Free AI Checker for ChatGPT, GPT-4, Gemini & More." Copyleaks, "AI Detector - Trusted AI Checker for ChatGPT, GPT4 & Gemini." ZeroGPT, "AI Detector: Identify AI-Generated Text." Ford Reports First Quarter 2025 Financial Results. "Ford Says Its Q1 Profit Fell by Two-Thirds and It Expects a $1.5 Billion Hit from Tariffs This Year." The Associated Press, 5 May 2025, Owusu, Tony. "Ford Makes a Drastic Decision in the Face of Tariff Overhang." TheStreet, 6 May 2025, Wayland, Michael. "Ford Suspends 2025 Guidance amid $2.5 Billion Tariff Impact." CNBC, 5 May 2025,
