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PM Ciuca: Handover of the Ford Craiova factory relates to making four new types of vehicles
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said on Tuesday that the handover of ownership of the Ford Craiova plant to Ford Otosan mainly relates to the making of four new types of vehicles, adding that the first fully electric vehicle there will be manufactured in 2024.
"We are talking about a handover of the Ford Craiova car factory to the Ford Otosan company. It is a transfer that comes with an investment of 490 million euros over the next three years. It is an investment designed mainly for the production of four new types of vehicles. And what is noteworthy is that in 2024, the first fully electric vehicle will be produced here," Ciuca said at the Ford Craiova factory.
He said that his discussions with the president of Ford Europe, with the manager of Ford Otosan and with the technical staff of the two companies were excellent.
"I understand very well that the projects are based on a vision of development, in the next period, of the Ford factory from Craiova and the intentions for investments and horizontal development for everything that means the need to ensure a consistent production of vehicles in Craiova," the prime minister also said.
He added that all these new investments come with a whole series of obligations, commitments, based on dialogue, at the level of the Government, in order to support the transition from combustion engines to pure-electric engines.
"Practically, through this investment, Ford Craiova comes and supports government projects to achieve our goals at EU level for a green transition, to succeed in ensuring that from 2035 we will make and use zero-emission vehicles, and it also helps us to horizontally be able to develop production facilities to support this whole approach of the Romanian business sector," said Ciuca.
He said the investment is a strengthening of Ford's presence in Craiova.
"It is about an intensification and a development of the production capacity. If today there are plans to produce approximately, I hope I'm not mistaken, 150,000 vehicles per year, next year the commitment is to produce 172,000 vehicles, ... 200,000, which is a good thing - we hope you produce even more, 300,000 if possible - both in terms of maintaining the attention for the development of the automotive industry in Romania, as well as for the development of the automotive industry in Romania, because we have learned today that there is a very consistent horizontal development," Ciuca added.
The prime minister said that representatives of Ford Craiova and Ford Otosan raised the issue of developing infrastructure for electric cars.
"At the level of the Government, there is a commitment assumed through the PNRR [the National recovery and Resilience Plan] so that at the end of 2026 we build 18,000 charging stations - 13,000 are from European funds, 5,000 will be financed from the state budget," added Nicolae Ciuca.
The prime minister specified that the general manager of Ford Otosan requested a dialogue in the next period regarding the arrival in Romania of other investors - partners of this company.
"We have this openness and we support all these steps and it is very important to emphasize that this approach fits very well with the Government's efforts to protect the economy and, in particular, to protect jobs, and through today's plan we were able to see that there is an intention to develop another 600 jobs at the level of the Ford Craiova company," Ciuca declared.
He appreciated the collaboration with the USA and Turkey.
"The commitment of the officials, both American and Turkish, is to continue to identify new opportunities to strengthen and develop our economic relations, our strategic partnerships. It is a very eloquent example that at Romania's level, a pillar of stability can be created with three deeply committed supporters in terms of the strategic relationship between partner states and friends," mentioned Ciuca.
The prime minister said that due attention should be paid to the development of road and railway infrastructure.
"It is necessary for this infrastructure to ensure the timely supply of parts and subassemblies and the timely distribution of what is produced in Craiova and not only here. I also understood that we must have on the table of priorities the development of the software industry - Romania has capabilities in this regard, there are a number of areas where we have demonstrated that we can be leaders in software development in the business sector and we have understood that we need to develop and come up with new disciplines in the education system in Romania so so that we can ensure the alignment of the business sector's need with what is being trained in the education system," declared Nicolae Ciuca.
(Photo: gov.ro)