Ford CFO John Lawler Says China Has ‘Asset Light’ Footprint

May 7, 2024 12:33 pm

A front view of the Ford Bronco in China.

After struggling to find a foothold in one of the world’s largest automotive markets for years, Ford CEO Jim Farley admitted that the automaker needed to “reboot” both its brand and strategy in China, and it has done precisely that over the past several months. In addition to exporting models from China, Ford has also begun launching domestically-produced, off-road-focused, existing vehicles there such as the Ford Bronco and Ford Ranger. Recently, Ford CFO John Lawler touched on the company’s ever-evolving China strategy during FoMoCo’s Q1 2024 earnings call with investors, too.

“Ford Blue’s global product portfolio remains strong and our hybrid sales continued to grow, up 36 percent in the quarter as we get the benefit of hybrid products planned years ago,” Lawler said. “Our global mix of hybrids is currently at 7 percent, up 2 points year-over-year with more products on the way. Additionally, China exports increased 33 percent, including Lincoln Nautilus, and that’s consistent with our strategy to better leverage that asset-light footprint.”

What Lawler is referring to here is that Ford’s Chinese lineup will continue to offer fewer vehicles when compared to what it consisted of previously, while those products are more targeted toward customers in that region to boot. At the same time, Ford will continue building vehicles in China that can then be exported to other global markets, which is currently the case with the Nautilus – the redesigned 2024 model is built in that country and sold in the U.S., along with other places, for example.

Meanwhile, Ford is also working to combat the flood of cheap Chinese EVs sold both in that country and other markets. The automaker recently revealed that it’s developing a low-cost EV platform of its own, which was designed specifically in response to that competition, as Lawler previously mentioned.

We’ll have more on Ford’s China strategy soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authorityfor ongoing Ford news coverage.

By Brett Foote

Brett's lost track of all the Fords he's owned over the years and how much he's spent modifying them, but his current money pits include an S550 Mustang and 13th gen F-150.