This week's winner is investing $1.6 billion in upgrades for two plants, creating jobs in the process; this week's loser is in an ongoing investigation after admitting to lying about its fuel economy data.
Winner
Ford announced Tuesday a 1.6 billion investment for its Livonia Transmission and Ohio Assembly plants, which will result in the creation or retention of 650 jobs.
The Livonia Transmission plant will be receiving a majority of the investment — $1.4 billion — as it prepares for the production of the 2017 F-150 Raptor's new 10-speed transmission. The upgrade for this plant is also responsible for 500 of the 650 projected created or retained jobs.
The remaining $200 million and 150 created or retained jobs will be at the Ohio Assembly plant, which produces Super Duty chassis cabs for the F-350, F-450 and F-550.
“We are proud that Ford employs more hourly workers and builds more vehicles in the United States than any other automaker,” said Ford Americas President Joe Hinrichs in a statement. “We are committed to manufacturing in the United States, as we have been for more than 100 years.”
Loser
Mitsubishi Motors Corp. came clean last week about intentionally lying about its fuel economy data. This week the investigation continues, and an internal investigation has found that the tampering dates back to 1991.
President Tetsuro Aikawa said so much about the case is still unknown that the company's actions — including customer compensation — have not yet been decided. Production of the affected models is currently at a halt. The inaccurate tests involved 157,000 of its eK wagon and eK Space light passenger cars, and 468,000 Dayz and Dayz Roox vehicles produced for Nissan Motor Co.
Not only does this news follow Volkswagen's continued struggle to make up for its diesel emissions scandal, but creates another problem for Mitsubishi after it has struggled to regain consumer trust after a defects scandal in the early 2000s. That scandal involved covering up brake failures, faulty clutches and fuel tanks prone to falling off dating back to the 1970s, resulting in the recall of more than a million vehicles.