Money don’t matter to Ford when it comes to the brand’s future
by AllAutoExperts | 17 April, 2020
Ford Motor will be investing 1.8 billion dollars in China, in the following 5 years, in a new generation of smart cars, in order to stop the sales decline, caused by the slow growth in this sector and the competition intensification, according to MarketWatch.
The American auto producer announced on Monday that it will invest 11.4 billion yuan (1.8 billion dollars) in the following 5 years, for research in the domain of the smartphone connectivity growth, automatic driving and other smart car functions for the cars dedicated to the Chinese market.
Through this investment, the new generation Ford cars from China will be projected around the customers from this market, said Ford's general manager, Mark Fields.
Ford's representatives hope that the planned investments in China shall contribute to the smart functions' development, specially conceived for the Chinese drivers.
In the present, Ford is installing smart systems on Chinese cars, which were projected and used in other markets.
"We see China as a very big developing market. It is a big opportunity to increase not only the base business, of the car sale, but also provide the people mobile services", said Fields.
Higher control of the drivers onto the automobile systems can be found among the services that might be offered by Ford, through the smartphones, especially during a traffic jam.
One shooting that has shown us the traffic jam problems in China, at the end of a holiday, became viral in the past days and highlighted the importance of the problem.
Ford's announcement comes in a time when the Chinese market's growth has stopped, based on the slow economic growth and the acquisitions limiting measures, because of the pollution and traffic.
The new car sales in China have decreased in august with 3.4%, at 1.42 billion cars, comparing to the same period from last year.
Ford and other competing companies, like General Motors and Volkswagen, have recently reduced the prices and their factories work under their capacities.
In the first months of the year, Ford has sold 531 704 cars in China, with a 1.2% decrease comparing to the same period last year.
Five years ago, Ford has announced a 5 billion plan in China, in order to double the production capacity at 1.2 billion vehicles. Since then, Ford's share in the Chinese market has doubled from 2.5% in 2010 to 5%.
