WASHINGTON: Fiat Chrysler on Sunday announced it was creating 2,000 jobs in the United States, coming as President-elect Donald Trump has been publicly scolding automakers for investing in Mexico.
The American-Italian firm will invest $1 billion by 2020 in two of its factories in the Midwestern states of Michigan and Ohio, where the new jobs will be based, the company said in a statement coming on the eve of the Detroit auto show.
"FCA US is further demonstrating its commitment to strengthening its US manufacturing base," it said, adding that it has created 25,000 jobs in the country since 2009.
Trump, who campaigned on promises of creating industrial jobs in the American heartland, took to Twitter this past week to blast automakers with operations or plans to build plants in Mexico.
He slammed General Motors for making some of its Chevy Cruze models south of the border, and Toyota, which is building a new plant there.
On Tuesday, US automaker Ford announced it was scrapping construction of a plant in Mexico to instead invest in the United States and create 700 jobs, citing a "vote of confidence" in the economic agenda of the incoming president.
Fiat Chrysler so far has escaped Trump's Twitter wrath, but it's due to start importing Jeep Compass models from Mexico as soon as this month.
Other auto groups have preemptively said they will be flexible in the new era of American politics.
"We are pragmatic, we will adapt to any situation," said the chief of the Renault-Nissan alliance, Carlos Ghosn, speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
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