Floreasca district in Bucharest, Romania - Henry Ford's plan for an overseas Motor City

Floreasca, a suburb of the romanian capital of Bucharest. In 1932 Ford Motor Company opens a small assembly plant with only 5, yes you read that well, only 5 workers.  

In only 5 years on the site of the assembly plant a large car factory was built. A lovely modernist brick  building in which 280 people worked 8 hours a day, 5 days per week. Everyday 10 cars were made, the full capacity being 30 cars per day.

As the 30's Romania was a major american outpost in Europe and almost all major U.S. companies already had an office here, Henry Ford decides to transform this small suburb of Bucharest into an overseas Motor City.

For this he puts his only son, Edsel Bryant Ford in charge of the plant and the future developments. By 1940 the factory was making civilian cars, urban maintenance vehicles (garbage trucks, sweeper trucks, snow plows, and others), trucks for civilian and army use and Fordson tractors. The products were also exported to Bulgaria, Hungary and Yugoslavia.

The plan was to build new production facilities, office buildings and to increase the production to 20.000 cars/year with all the components made in Romania at american standards and with american industrial equipment. Also all the profit from the first years would've been reinvested in the development of a "Motor City".

After the investment plan was publicly announced, many factories from Bucharest and other major cities started importing new american equipment that met Ford standards and upholstery, paints, screws, glass, metal sheet samples and more were sent to Detroit to be analysed and get a Ford certification.

Sadly the start of WW2 and after that the new communist regime put a definitive stop to this large scale plan thought by Henry Ford.