Ford: Dealer network to expand as sales surge
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Ford Motor Co's car venture with partner Chongqing Chang'an Auto Co will expand its number of dealerships by 25 percent this year to 300 to accelerate its expansion in the world's No 1 car market.
According to Wesley Liu, vice-manager of the sales division at Chang'an Ford, the company will develop about 60 new dealerships this year, 30 percent of them in first- and second-tier cities, with remainder in less developed urban areas.
After maintaining a rapid pace in building its sales network for several years, the joint venture now has 241 authorized outlets across the country.
Ford established the joint venture in 2001 and began to sell cars in 2003, much later than global rivals Volkswagen and General Motors.
In the first quarter this year, 153,362 Ford vehicles were sold in China, a surge of 84 percent over the same period of 2009.
The company has not revealed its sales goal for 2010, only saying that it expects sales to surpass the growth rate of the overall market.
Liu agreed with the widely circulated prediction that the Chinese car market is likely to grow by 10 to 15 percent this year.
He noted that the competition will be much fiercer in the second half of this year, yet the market will "undoubtedly" continue to rise.
The joint venture now has a 270,000-unit plant in Chongqing in southwest China and a 180,000-unit facility in the eastern city of Nanjing.
It began to build another plant in Chongqing last year that is scheduled for completion by the end of 2011. The first model scheduled to roll off its assembly line is a revamped version of the Ford Focus.
The new plant will have an initial production capacity of 150,000 units a year, boosting the company's total annual manufacturing capacity to 600,000 vehicles.
Last year, Chang'an Ford sold some 230,000 cars including 134,336 of its best-selling Focus model. Sales of the compact maintained strong momentum this year, with more than 41,000 units purchased between January and March.
The joint venture celebrated its 500,000th locally made Focus at the end of last month.
Chang'an Ford also makes the Fiesta, Mondeo and S-MAX - as well as the Volvo S40 and S80 - in its existing plants.
The factories have also built Mazda cars after a 2006 deal with the Japanese automaker, which took a 15 percent share in the venture. Chang'an owns 50 percent of the partnership, while Ford holds 35 percent in the three-way deal.
Ford plans to introduce its Edge sports utility vehicle (SUV) at the upcoming Beijing Auto Show later this month in a bid to tap fast-growing demand for SUVs among Chinese customers, said Liu without clarifying if the Edge will be locally made.
Liu reiterated that Ford will launch four new models in China over three years, but did not elaborate .
Ford has still another joint venture - with Jiangling Motor Co in Jiangxi province - that makes commercial vehicles. The company moved a record 41,300 vehicles in the first three months this year, including 11,438 Transit vans.
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