G.M. officials declined to comment on Mr. Trump’s Twitter attack, other than to say in a statement that only a “small number” of Cruze hatchbacks were built in Mexico for the American market.
But G.M. has a large exposure to any potential changes looming on Nafta, having committed up to $5 billion in long-term investment in Mexico. Foreign car companies like Volkswagen and Toyota are also adding jobs and new products at their Mexican facilities.
With Nafta under fire from the incoming administration, Ford, in particular, has tried to adapt.
In a recent interview, the company’s chief financial officer, Robert L. Shanks, said the automaker was expecting changes in trade deals, and increasing its focus on expanding its manufacturing in the United States. “The bigger principle is we want to grow the U.S. economy,” he said.
On Tuesday, the company packaged a series of announcements on new electrified vehicles with a promise to invest $700 million in its Flat Rock assembly plants.
The addition of 700 jobs at the plant will help it build a new fully electric S.U.V. to debut in 2020, as well as a new autonomous vehicle that has no steering wheel and operates entirely by computer.
Ford’s vice president of global purchasing, Hau Thai-Tang, said the company chose the Flat Rock facility “to really show we are making a commitment to the United States and to technology.”
Mr. Fields, however, was more circumspect on why the company had dropped its plans for the new Mexican factory. “We didn’t need it anymore,” he said. “We just don’t need the capacity anymore given the demand for small cars.”
Still, the news about the Mexican plant and the new jobs in Michigan were conveyed directly to Mr. Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence before they were publicly announced.
“We called the president-elect and the vice president-elect this morning and gave them the news,” Mr. Fields said Tuesday. “They were very pleased, obviously, that we were making these investments in the U.S.”
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