President-elect Donald Trump nudged General Motors Co., the largest U.S. automaker, to follow its biggest peers by investing in domestic auto plants and adding jobs.
Less than two minutes into his first formal press conference after the November election, Trump highlighted Ford Motor Co.'s plans to cancel a $1.6 billion factory in Mexico and expand an existing plant in Michigan. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV committed $1 billion toward building three new Jeeps in the U.S. and enabling a Michigan facility to build a Ram pickup now produced in Mexico.
"I hope that General Motors will be following and I think they will be," Trump said Wednesday at Trump Tower in Manhattan. "I think a lot of people will be following. I think a lot of industries are going to be coming back."
Tony Cervone, a GM spokesman, declined to discuss the company's manufacturing investment plans.
"It's a complex business with a lot of inputs and considerations," Cervone said in a telephone interview. "We will consider all of them. We look forward to engaging the new administration in conversation."
