Ford deliveries surge 67% on strong car, crossover volume
Sales of Ford Motor Co.'s two Chinese joint ventures jumped 67 percent year-on-year in February to 73,040 units on robust demand for its sedans and crossovers.
Last month, sales of Changan Ford Automobile Co. surged 81 percent from a year earlier to 53,274 units, according to the Dearborn, Mich., company.
Changan Ford, a joint venture between Ford and Chongqing Changan Automobile Co., produces the Ford Mondeo, Focus and new Fiesta cars and the Kuga and EcoSport crossovers in the southwest China municipality of Chongqing.
Mondeo sales soared 123 percent to 7,755 units, while Focus sales increased 13 percent to 27,899 units. Sales of other Changan Ford models were unavailable.
Ford did not disclose deliveries of imported cars in China; those sales typically are low-volume.
Jiangling Motors Co., a Ford joint venture that produces the Transit van as well as its own SUVs, pickups and vans, reported a sales increase of 22 percent to 16,756 vehicles.
The company is in the east China city of Nanchang.
For the first two months of this year, sales of Ford's Chinese partnerships rose 59 percent year-on-year to 167,506 units.
Separately, Ford is expanding its r&d center in China, increasing head count by more than 50 percent, adding a building and a test track and broadening the center's activities.
Ford Motor China CEO John Lawler told the The Wall Street Journal the expansion of the research and engineering center in Nanjing is "one of our top global-product-development priorities."
"Growing REC -- one of eight such centers in Ford's global system -- allows our global team to better integrate local customer insight from China and from Ford's other Asia-Pacific markets into global product-development programs," Lawler told the paper on Wednesday.
The number of Ford employees at the Nanjing complex will rise to around 2,000 by 2018 from roughly 1,300 today, the paper reported. When Ford moved into the current center in 2007, the facility had around 300 employees. The current center can accommodate 1,600 workers.
The company has invested more than $200 million in the center, the Journal said, and the expansion plan will require an additional investment of $100 million.
The automaker is also building a test track 60 miles from the Nanjing engineering center. Ford is working to make the track "operational as early as possible," the paper reported.
Changan Ford, a joint venture between Ford and Chongqing Changan Automobile Co., produces the Ford Mondeo, Focus and new Fiesta cars and the Kuga and EcoSport crossovers in the southwest China municipality of Chongqing.
Mondeo sales soared 123 percent to 7,755 units, while Focus sales increased 13 percent to 27,899 units. Sales of other Changan Ford models were unavailable.
Ford did not disclose deliveries of imported cars in China; those sales typically are low-volume.
Jiangling Motors Co., a Ford joint venture that produces the Transit van as well as its own SUVs, pickups and vans, reported a sales increase of 22 percent to 16,756 vehicles.
The company is in the east China city of Nanchang.
For the first two months of this year, sales of Ford's Chinese partnerships rose 59 percent year-on-year to 167,506 units.
Separately, Ford is expanding its r&d center in China, increasing head count by more than 50 percent, adding a building and a test track and broadening the center's activities.
Ford Motor China CEO John Lawler told the The Wall Street Journal the expansion of the research and engineering center in Nanjing is "one of our top global-product-development priorities."
"Growing REC -- one of eight such centers in Ford's global system -- allows our global team to better integrate local customer insight from China and from Ford's other Asia-Pacific markets into global product-development programs," Lawler told the paper on Wednesday.
The number of Ford employees at the Nanjing complex will rise to around 2,000 by 2018 from roughly 1,300 today, the paper reported. When Ford moved into the current center in 2007, the facility had around 300 employees. The current center can accommodate 1,600 workers.
The company has invested more than $200 million in the center, the Journal said, and the expansion plan will require an additional investment of $100 million.
The automaker is also building a test track 60 miles from the Nanjing engineering center. Ford is working to make the track "operational as early as possible," the paper reported.
