For over 32 years Ford’s F-150 pickup truck has been the top selling vehicle in America. Even more impressive, it’s accomplished this while containing the most American made parts out of any automobile, as noted by cars.com’s American-Made index.
However, according to a research report put out by Morgan Stanley, this may soon change. Electric car maker Tesla, plans to construct a 6-billion dollar ‘gigafactory’ to produce its own electric lithium-ion batteries, which are currently produced in Japan.
Once they bring production of their batteries to America, over 90% of the parts in Tesla cars will be produced in the US, which will make it the most ‘American-made’ car on the market.
In comparison, only 75% of the Ford F-150’s parts produced in America,
This is of course is completely dependent on the successful completion of Tesla’s new plant, which will also employ over 6,000 people here in the states.
Tesla overthrowing Ford will not be a walk in the park however, as Ford plans on moving some production from their Mexico plants back to the US, and some of Tesla’s largest investors are against the construction of the new plant.
But Tesla Motors has been overcoming obstacles their entire existence on their way to amassing several notable achievements such as Motor Trend’s 2013 Car of the Year and the NHTSA’s best safety rating of any car ever tested.
So what do you think? Will Tesla be able to successfully dethrone Ford as the most American made car? Will children 20 years from now consider a Model-S as the all American automobile? That looks to be Tesla’s plans, but only time will tell.