Bloomberg/ Reuters/Beijing
Ford Motor Co., the fastest-growing major foreign automaker in China, will unveil a prototype of a seven-seater off-road SUV that will preview a model sold for the first time with Jiangling Motors Co.
The midsize Ford Everest concept, which will be shown at the Beijing auto show and was created by the automaker’s design team in Australia, will be produced for the Chinese market by Ford’s JMC joint venture and distributed through JMC’s Ford-brand network of dealers, according to a statement by the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker. Ford currently makes its SUVs in China with Chongqing Changan Automobile Co.
Ford has pulled within striking distance of Nissan Motor Co. and Hyundai Motor Co. in China, driven by demand for its sport utility vehicles and the Focus car. After a late entry, Ford is on pace to trail only General Motors Co. and Volkswagen AG in the world’s largest auto market, as the US automaker expands its dealer network, builds new factories and introduces the Lincoln luxury brand this year.
Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally has pushed Ford, which long relied on demand from the US and Europe, to expand in Asia after joining from Boeing Co. in 2006. He came to Ford with relevant experience on his resume: as a Boeing executive in the 1970s, Mulally worked on the opening of China’s market to western aircraft and helped set up its air-traffic control system.
Ford delivered 271,321 vehicles in China during the first quarter of this year, the carmaker said earlier this month, closing in on Nissan and Hyundai. Ford passed Toyota Motor for the first time last year to become No. 5 among foreign automakers.
The company has said a new assembly plant and a transmission factory will begin production in China this year. Two more plants are set to open in 2015 in what Ford has called its biggest manufacturing expansion in half a century.
In addition to the Focus, the best-selling foreign car in China last year, Ford has drawn buyers for locally manufactured models such as the Kuga and EcoSport utility vehicles and the Mondeo, which sells in the US market as the Fusion.
Ford will unveil the Ford Escort, its latest production vehicle for China, at the Beijing auto show that opens to the public this week.
Meanwhile, Volkswagen said yesterday it will keep expanding Chinese operations and start selling battery-powered cars in the biggest auto market as the country rewards electric-vehicle buyers to tackle air pollution.
VW said yesterday it will add capacity in its top market, the destination of over a third of its 2.4mn first-quarter group deliveries, as economic stimulus measures and demand in China's interior regions fuel sales.
VW group deliveries may increase to over 3.5mn cars this year, a record, from 3.27mn in 2013, Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn said at a company event.
The German group, one of the first global automakers to establish production facilities in China during the 1980s, will push its environmental credentials as China moves to upgrade the economy and shift the focus away from heavy industry.
The government announced in February a 10bn yuan ($1.61bn) fund to help change the way it produces and consumes energy. It aims to promote green and low-carbon technology to cut fossil fuel use and control coal consumption.
"Here in China, as elsewhere, people's expectations of mobility and the automobile are changing faster and faster," the VW CEO said.
Europe's biggest carmaker, which also sells the high-performance Lamborghini and Bentley brands in China, is a late starter in terms of making environmentally-friendly cars there.
Rival Daimler and Chinese partner BYD Co plan to start selling their Denza electric vehicle this year while hybrid vehicle champion Toyota unveiled the Yundon-Showanchin II hybrid model last year, specifically developed for China.
VW plans to start selling electric versions of the Up city-car and the Golf hatchback this year, followed by plug-in hybrid versions of the Audi A3 compact and Golf GTE in 2015, according to VW.
Plug-in hybrids can travel longer distances on battery power than ordinary hybrids and can be recharged at public charging stations. VW also said it plans to develop and build plug-in versions of Audi's A6 model and a new, mid-sized saloon with its two Chinese partners.
"Here in China we are now setting out on the road to a future of emission-free mobility," Winterkorn said.
VW, which has over a dozen factories in China, plans to expand its distribution network by half to 3,600 dealers by 2018 from 2,400 last year, Jochem Heizmann, the head of VW's China operations, said at a briefing.
The carmaker's two joint venture partners, First Automotive Works and Shanghai Volkswagen, are planning to spend 18.2bn euros through 2018, the year VW has pledged to take the global car-sales crown, on models, technologies and plants.
