IMO, this has been Ford’s standard operating procedure for a while now.  A lot of their decisions have don’t make sense.  

And there literally has been no repercussion for all of Farleys mistakes, which I think he should have been fired for.  

God forbid they show anything interesting at an auto show, where all kinds of potential buyers might be lurking.  People who might not typically be looking at Fords.  It’s not like they have demonstrated proficiency at reveals during their own independent reveals so they really aren’t competing with other brands for attention.  

You have to get their attention somehow.  If it’s painful for China (and this would be very painful) then they’ll negotiate.  Otherwise what incentive do they have?  

It appears there is a push to grow their domestic brands    They have better quality domestic options than in the past.  

They must have other plans for BOC otherwise it just doesn’t make sense.

Part of the issue is he just threatened about 50% increase in tariffs on China today because he' mad about them not backing down on their 34%. I'm fine with negotiating, but this constant escalation is just gonna screw us if it keeps going. 

To be fair, it seems like sales of all western and even European brands have been bad there recently 

I also think also exacerbated by the fact they’re building this massive new plant that’s already going to be underutilized, but they’re also going to convert Louisville on top of that, leaving them heavily exposed in multiple segments if/when the EVs don’t perform well sales wise.

Because it became cheaper to manufacture overseas and import, especially after unions artificially inflated labor rates through legalized extortion.   The first task is to get equal and fair trade removing tariffs and other barriers on U.S. products.  If those were in place Mach-E could have been built here instead of Mexico.   Some foreign auto mfrs have already committed to more U.S. production.  If he gets commitments then you don’t need the tariffs any more provided they follow through with the commitment within a certain timeframe.  From a business standpoint the threat that a big tariff could be imposed at any time in the future should be sufficient to justify more U.S. production.  These tariffs are really just a warning shot to get their attention.  Most will go away once concessions are achieved some of which seem to already be happening with Israel and Europe.