“As we are able to develop this ecosystem, we will all strengthen ourselves and we do not imagine any other path to the future than that of collaboration to share new ideas of the future,” said Dionisio Campos, director of Operations at Ford Spain, yesterday. ‘Let’s go hand in hand’ is the message that the multinational wanted to convey to its suppliers and customers during the Ford I Day that, for the second consecutive year, the multinational held in the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències de València.
Last year’s event was held already knowing that Almussafes beat Saarlouis in that fight opened by the same European management of the firm, but a year later, and with an ERE through, the late allocation of electric vehicles – they even renounced aid from the first Perte- burdens the auxiliary industry. This is how we understand the comment of Francisco Segura, president of AVIA, the Valencian automotive and mobility cluster, when yesterday at the institutional opening of the day he said “we accept with enthusiasm these difficult moments, but we predict a very successful moment for the Valencian Community”.
At the event, in which Redit and Startup Valencia also participated, Ford Spain reiterated its commitment to “continue to jointly develop an innovative ecosystem,” said Campos, who almost said goodbye with yesterday’s event since he will retire at the end of the month. “It is extremely important that all agents work towards a common goal,” he said by way of reflection.
The inauguration was closed by the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, who also alluded to the context in a subtle way. “This is a leading sector that jumps fence after fence with professionalism. Now it jumps another fence in an eternal transit that seems that way, but won’t be.” Again, without citing it, the tempo of electrification was up in the air.
The sector has been experiencing anxiety in recent months, almost as a whole, in the last year. “In recent years the speed has become dizzying and we have put the focus on mobility and have incorporated it into our strategic plans to respond to the needs of society and industry,” summarized Segura, who later in the attention to media landed more on those ideas.
“Until it is said otherwise, we trust that the electric ones will arrive at the Valencia factory sooner or later, but the delay in electrification can produce significant production drops for component suppliers,” he stated. He foresees, he added, that if Ford lowers production, there will be more ERE or more company closures. And lately there have been some accounts that have become known.
Yesterday, the multinational presented 149 R&D projects developed during 2023 at the Almussafes plant, some of them together with different suppliers in the sector. Projects linked to advanced robotics, automated vehicles, 3D printing or digitalization.
In them, the firm highlighted that there are up to 450 employees of the Valencian factory involved in innovation projects and argued that it is because “there is a culture of innovation that allows us to move forward,” said Carlos Moliner, manager of Innovation and Transformation of Ford Valencia.
