Ford betting new plant and Forrei Simon Diou sales increased by 90%

Ford Motor Co., Ltd. released data saying that it sold 93,179 vehicles in China in October this year, which was slightly lower than the same period of last year. In the first 10 months, it increased by more than two percent year-on-year. Although the sales volume of some major models declined, Mondeo's sales rose by 30% in the previous month, accumulatively increasing by 90%. Ford hopes that future new plants and new vehicles such as Forreth will break the capacity bottleneck and achieve further growth.

Slight decline in the month

In October 2014, Ford China's sales volume was 93,179 units, a slight decrease of 0.8% compared with 93,969 units in the same period last year. In September of this year, Ford’s sales in China fell slightly by 0.2% year-on-year, ending a consecutive 28-month growth record since the new Fox listed in April 2012. Ford said earlier that sales growth has stalled and capacity bottlenecks. Claire Li, vice president of communications and public affairs for Ford Motor Co., Ltd., explained to the media: “Our output has been maximized.”

From January to October, Ford’s cumulative sales volume in China exceeded 900,000 units, reaching 906,613 units, a 22.2% increase from 741,818 units in the same period of 2013. Although sales declined slightly in September and October, due to the rapid growth before August, cumulative sales are still up. In fact, Ford’s sales in China in August will have slowed to 8.9%, which is obviously lower than the previous level.

According to statistics from Gasgoo.com, in October 2013, Ford’s sales in China increased by 55% compared to the same period in 2012, which also increased the difficulty of maintaining continued growth.

In October, sales of Ford Motor’s passenger car joint venture Chang’an Ford fell by 1.5% year-on-year to 69,111 units from 70,173 units, and from 23.6% to 660,566 units from 536,421 units from January to October.

In terms of specific models, Ford Mondeo performed well, with sales from January to October breaking the 100,000 mark, reaching 100,482 units, a 94.2% increase from 51,748 units in the same period last year. Mondeo's sales in October reached 11,550 units, an increase of 29.2% from 8,937 units in October last year.

Ford imported models perform well in sales. Ford Explorer, Sharp Circle, Fox ST and Carnival ST accumulated sales in the first 10 months of this year increased by 61% over the same period last year. The sales volume of imported models reached 2,622 units in October, an increase of 27% compared with October of last year.

Former commercial vehicle investment company Jiangling Motors in China from January to October this year, the cumulative sales exceeded 200,000 mark, reaching 216,300 units, compared with 186,920 units in the same period last year increased by 15.6%. Jiangling Motors sold 21,446 vehicles in October, which was basically the same as 21,724 units in the same period of last year.

Expansion and release of new cars

In order to meet the growing demand of Chinese consumers, Ford’s third automaker in China officially completed production in Chongqing last week. The Changan Ford Chongqing No. 3 vehicle plant, which has invested 600 million U.S. dollars (about 3.8 billion yuan), will increase the annual production capacity of Changan Ford by 360,000 vehicles.

Ford Furus is the first car produced by Chongqing's third vehicle factory. Based on Ford's global mid-tier car platform, Forex is an intermediate family car tailored specifically to the unique needs of Chinese consumers.

At the end of August 2012, the Changan Ford Hangzhou factory officially broke ground and the total investment was as high as US$760 million (approximately RMB 5 billion). The initial planned production capacity was 250,000 units, and it is scheduled to be put into production in 2015. At that time, Changan Ford’s total production capacity will exceed 1.2 million vehicles; the final planning goal is 500,000 total production capacity, responsible for the production of Ford sharp, Lincoln and other high-end models. Chang'an Ford's future production capacity is expected to exceed 1.5 million.

On November 13, the Everest new SUV manufactured by Jiangling Motors will be officially launched. It is expected that Ford will announce a series of new car prices and configuration information in the future.

Ford is also working on arranging its luxury brand Lincoln in China. The first Lincoln models have arrived in Shanghai, including the MKC crossover SUV and the MKZ sedan. Starting in October, it will open eight Lincoln dealerships in seven cities in China. The first three stores have opened.