Ford’s China business is in the midst of undergoing major changes in a highly competitive market amid fledgling sales, all with a new CEO at the helm. In addition to launching new products such as the Ford Ranger pickup and Ford Bronco SUV in that country, the automaker recently handed over full Ford Mustang Mach-E operations to its joint venture Changan Ford – which itself just set up a new joint venture – and may soon cut jobs as it continues to reduce costs. As for The Blue Oval’s other Chinese joint venture – Jiangling Ford Automobile Technology – it’s also set to make some major changes as it shifts its own focus away from passenger cars and toward pickups and off-road-focused SUVs, according to Yicai Global.
“Nowadays, the Chinese passenger vehicle sector is highly homogeneous, and the corresponding competition is quite fierce,” Liu Jisheng, president of Jiangling Ford, said while speaking at the recent Chengdu Motor Show. “We adjusted our strategy because Ford has relatively smaller advantages in the mainstream passenger vehicle market. Instead of being one of the many options in fields we are not particularly good at, we would rather make unique products needed by customers that are our flagship products.”
“In the past, most of China’s pickup trucks were used to transport freights and also carry passengers, but they lacked the comfort of passenger cars and the driving experience was not very good,” Liu said. “We grabbed this business opportunity to launch new products with greater comfort and took advantage of the fact that competition in this market segment is not fierce.”
This announcement coincided with the debut of the Ranger and Ford Beyond – the company’s new SUV brand – at the Chengdu Motor Show, where new Ford China CEO Sam Wu reveled that the latter will serve as a lifestyle brand for off-road enthusiasts and outdoorsy types. The move also coincides with China’s decision to roll back restrictions on pickup trucks in urban areas, which figures to entice more automakers to try and compete for this piece of the proverbial sales pie.
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Comments
they cant even get trucks built in the USA
After 30 years buying Ford cars, I stopped buying from them due to their abominable decission of stopping the production of sedans. I don´t like SUV´s and I don´t need a pick-up or a truck, so I´m now buying from other brands. Now they are repeating that in China. Probably Ford needs another CEO since Farley has widely proven to be a complete incompetent since he hasn´t been able to succesfully sell sedans like for example the germans or the asians can. In a planet with climate problems, focusing only on heavier vehicles with a higher gravity center and a design that produces greater wind resistance and in consecquence pollute more, is completely irresponsible.
Somehow Euro’s and Asians can sell sedans and the U.S. can’t ?!?!?!?!
Ford can’t. Tesla, Lucid, GM, Dodge (all of them american) can and do.
I switched to Nissan and Toyota because Ford’s quality has tanked since 2011. The last Ford I bought was a 2014 Edge – while it was a good vehicle it had issues. Still own it but it is expensive to maintain.