Ford is set to continue its startling sales trajectory in China with its American "can-do" spirit.
At the Auto Shanghai 2015 that opened to media yesterday, the company presented a series of new models under its Ford brand as part of its promised deliveries of 15 new offers from 2011 till this year to the country. This ambitious product deployment plan known as "1515" is what helps grow Ford from a minority player into a reckoning force.
"The '1515' is a huge success. Last year we saw a record for our sales and market share in China," said Mark Fields, President and CEO of Ford Motor Co. "We went from ranking 12th or 13th three and four years ago to the 5th place in China's passenger car market as of last year as we have doubled our manufacturing capacity and workforce since 2010."
Back in 2011, the company only had Focus, Mondeo, Fiesta, and S-Max for China. The line-up was later expanded with the joining of over 10 new models including EcoSport, Kuga, new Mondeo, Fiesta ST, Focus ST, Explorer, Escort, and the new Mustang, etc.
Joining the growing product portfolio this year are the new Taurus, the new China-made Edge, and a series of latest high-performance vehicles shaped with Ford's fun-to-drive DNA. A lot of them represent Ford's new niche-market ventures. Taurus, for example, is the brand's first entry into the flagship sedan segment.
"Looking at the new segments where we are going into, like the full-size sedan, crossover, and the luxury sides, there are still opportunities for growth," said Fields.
As the stellar years of car sales featuring double-digit growth are becoming a little bit history amid China's economic slowdown, which has been identified as a "new normal" by China's Premier Li Keqiang, the name of the game is also changing.
A better offer now is no longer about price, but about innovation and experience.
Ford's product portfolio now provides 15 eco-friendly engine choices under a single family name called EcoBoost, which represents a pioneering combination of turbocharging, twin independent variable camshaft timing and high-pressure direct injection.
It is also proactively exploring trends around autonomous vehicles, connected cars, mobility, and big data, all having the potential to make it go further.
Driving innovation
"Over a century ago, Henry Ford's innovations changed how the world travels. We're driving innovation in every part of our business to deliver advanced new products and to change the way the world moves," said John Lawler, Chairman and CEO of Ford Motor China.
For example, the Ford Smart Mobility plan has begun with 25 mobility experiments around the globe, with more to come this year, to test breakthrough transportation ideas to create better customer experiences, more flexible user-ship models and social collaboration that can reward customers.
And the Ford Innovate Mobility Challenge Series came to Shanghai and Chongqing last year as a global mobility app and accessories challenge series engaging developers to help identify and solve congestion and mobility problems in mega-cities.
As a smart competitor in this fast changing digital age, Ford doesn't fight alone.
Instead of taking the job of designing all those onboard infotainment features as traditional carmakers do, the company is among the first to replicate the vibrant app ecosystem of smartphones in the car by opening up its dashboard for third-party input from developers around the world.
Some IT companies have become partners with carmakers in making connected smart cars, like Microsoft for Ford's SYNC system while others, with their dazzling speed of innovation and daring character, are trying to take over the car's dashboard to make further inroads into the carmaking field.
"There are a lot of competitors that we never thought would be competitors in the car business. That's motivating us to keep innovating," said Fields.
"That's why we are significantly growing our Silicon Valley research facility, which, by the end of this year, will be one of the largest automotive facilities in the valley."
