The Ford car in the corner

Fox in China looks good, let people almost ignore the Ford company and several baby products have been hung in the corner.　　In the Chinese market, Ford's performance is still a gamble. |CBN reporter Sherinning Every Thursday, Ford's headquarters in a conference room called "Thunderbird" will always discuss some important business plans. The regular business plan review, which brings together the four profit centers of the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific and Ford, is one of a number of powerful initiatives by Alan Mulally, the CEO of Boeing's airborne, with a total of 12 functional divisions.　　One day in April 2009, he asked his colleagues at such a meeting: Is it possible to start thinking about the new factory in China again? The term "Ford will build a new factory" has been circulating in China for a long time, but it has been shrouded in mist. It will involve a lot of questions, such as whether Ford will stick to a big investment in the financial crisis, how Ford balances its relationship with the two partners Changan and Mazda, and so on. Ford has established two factories in China, respectively, in Chongqing and Nanjing. But at this point, Mulally has decided to make the idea of setting up a new factory a reality.　　5 months later, September 25, he appeared in Chongqing to attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the new factory. Both Ford China and its many partners regard this day as a holiday. It's a lot bigger than the auto show – at the Shanghai International Auto Show in April 2009, Mulally was one of the few global CEOs of international auto companies that were not there. The new factory is located in the northern part of Chongqing Mao Ping, covers an area of about 100 hectares, the total investment of 3.34 billion yuan. As he left Boeing, Mulally once declared: "To Ford is to save America and the world's idol."　　Now the Chinese market is an important card in his hand, and the new plant is expected to start production in 2012, boosting Ford's capacity in China to 600,000 vehicles. There is still a gap between this figure and the capacity of Shanghai GM's 760,000 units. But Ford's capacity and sales in the Chinese market lag behind those of its global rivals for a long time and will not be reversed overnight. At the moment, Mulally is more concerned about his models, which is a key to pleasing Chinese users. The new plant will gather Ford's first production technology.　　In the presence of more than 200 media in the country, the 63-Year-old CEO said that after the new factory was put into production, Ford China would launch four to six new cars in three years, as he decided in the Thunderbird conference room to push the luxury brands of Jaguar and Land Rover together. The Detroit giant, which put its first model in China into the market in 2003, is largely seen as the last of the traditional big three-a huge embarrassment that has been facing for years: if it weren't for the new carnival, their image in the Chinese market would have to be supported by the compact car of forks.　　They have launched several products here, but few have succeeded except Fox and the new carnival. The new carnival is the most exciting talk of Ford car in the past year. Under the "one Ford" concept advocated by Mulally, LeeWith the Global platform technology research and development of the car, has a good power configuration and rich color, there are quite flattering appearance.　　By October 2009, the new carnival had sold around the world 500,000 vehicles a year after it was listed, and in China it sold 32,178 in 7 months, even as much as Fox, which has relied on the performance of Ford China over the past few years. But if you compare the 2003 Ford's first model of the old carnival in China, it sold 30,000 cars by 2007, most notably because the shape of the car looks very lame to Chinese consumers (the car was originally targeted at the Indian market).　　This is a big fuss by competitors. In fact, the old carnival as a "bad product" is unfair. This Ford, which has been in the pipeline since 1972, has been one of the best-selling cars in the European market for decades of improved classic cars.　　By 1996, it had sold a total of 4 million vehicles. It can only be said that Ford China's understanding of the critical Chinese market was too simplistic. "Ford didn't care about the appearance at the time, but only emphasized the sense of manipulation in the promotion."　　"A Ford dealer in Shanghai told the first financial weekly. The dealer was impressed by the "push back" of the old carnival when it stepped on the accelerator, but more Chinese users were not buying it. In their eyes, this car is too much trouble, in addition to the appearance of the eye, there are rough interior, car space is too narrow. "The old carnival in the positioning, pricing, the user's appearance preferences on the judgment has been a mistake."　　Messonlin, general manager of J.d.power China, consulting agency. In the following year, Ford China tried to introduce the intermediate car Mondeo also a bad start. The car has no advantage compared to the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord and is priced at a high price. In its best year of sale, one months were sold for only 3,000.　　As a result of the late continuous preferential price reduction, cleaning up the inventory, the market once dubbed it "diving champion." What really makes Ford feel in China is the 2005-listed Fox. A former employee who left Ford China in 2008 for more than 4 years believed that Fox was the first passenger car to be introduced by Ford in China to take seriously the Chinese market.　　The result was an accurate response to the trend of compact cars that began to appear in the market. By September 2009, Ford China was the No. 400000 Fox to be produced by its partner Changan Ford Mazda. The sale of the car seems to inspire Ford's inspiration in China, recognizing the importance of exterior and interior elements that were previously overlooked in the Chinese market. To keep up with the car buyers, Fox is by far the most rich in the Chinese market "Facebook" a model.　　One of the most notable improvements was the 2009 Fox-Blackened head, the carbon-fiber interior and the ESP body dynamic stability system, and the use of a large mouth inlet grille, which attracted the mainstream of the movement. A fox that emphasizes sport and individualityFord tasted the sweetness, and the company then wanted to build on that position.　　But the result is that the heat is a bit too much. The sport-style private sedan is the initial location of Ford China's new medium-level car Ougeu, which was listed in November 2007. Ford China hopes it will save face for the failure of the old Mondeo. "Sell 14,000 units a month."　　"Changan Ford Mazda president Shenying at that time to say. Mondeo wins a change Ford intermediate car used to conservative style, in the appearance of the use of the movement of the line, the internal space is also spacious enough, in the chassis, control, car application technology, etc. also quite commendable. "Ford's most advanced automotive product ever", this is the slogan Ford used to use the Ougeu of the Monty. In addition, it has 007 to help, in the latest 007 film "Royal Casino", the long-term sponsorship of the film Ford deliberately let the legendary spy driving a Monty Ougeu to the casino. >> Given the above reasons, Shenying's self-confidence may not be unwarranted. But then the actual situation is, the OUGEU has not been into the mainstream of intermediate vehicles, sales for a long time on the level of less than 3,000 vehicles wandering.　　And its minimum configuration of 2.0 comfort type, is a one-time price reduced to less than 140,000, the equivalent of some of the market's a-class car. Ford China once wanted to fix the problem by upgrading its configuration. Within a year, the Monty Ougeu has made several configuration upgrades: The copilot seat belts are not warned, front seat side airbags, external rearview mirror heating, GPS navigation system, xenon headlamps system, ESP electronic body stability system these weapons debut.　　According to the dealer's statistics, Monty Ougeu large-scale upgrade configuration activities, at least two times.　　One Ford Mazda Insider told the first financial weekly that the positioning of the OUGEU in China's auto market is rare, which is another lesson that Ford China summed up in the past year. Ford China now found that the OUGEU in China's intermediate car market is too "young", emphasizing the dynamic shape design in the field of intermediate vehicles some ahead. As a result of the reference to some concept car design elements, in the current hope to drive the middle of the crowd is not stable. The concept of exercise is not a problem to use in forks, but it is a failure in the Ougeu of the Monty.　　At the same time, such a design also makes the product in the business vehicle market lost competitiveness. The intermediate car is now undergoing another round of changes: it changes the front-face lines to make them look more sedate, and this model is called the "extreme" type. The market target is from sports sedan to business, commercial car market, focusing on the development of government vehicles and other fields.　　There is no data to show that such action can bring a big boost to the sales of Ougeu. and Mondeo and Ougeu this two times in the intermediate car market, almost with the Ougeu of the ford of the same period launched by Ford is a bold test of China's unknown market. It is Ford's advocate for the leisure wagon: a car-keeping driveControl performance, but added a member seat, the rear has a larger, flexible folding storage space can be arranged. In a family that has more than one car in Europe and the United States, this is a best-selling family car. But it is too early to put forward such ideas in China.　　Ford China rarely publishes Ford sales figures.　　Now, through the new carnival, Ford China hopes that past misconceptions about the Chinese market will come to an end. As models built on the "global platform", the Chinese team has been able to participate in the development of the new carnival at an unprecedented level, a way that Ford has never used: To set up a team to collect information about the needs of Chinese users, and research and development headquarters to communicate with each other almost every two months. Ensure that the needs of Chinese users are fully considered in the process of vehicle development. Similar groups that collect local user needs also appear in cities such as London, Cologne and New York.　　Current sales of the new carnival in China and around the world seem to suggest that this will be a promising prospect. It's just the beginning. "Future models of China will be built on a global platform," he said.　　"said Mulally. However, in addition to the announced next-generation Fox, Ford China is currently unable to answer what kind of vehicle to introduce in the future. The shadows of the Carnival and the Monty Ougeu still remain, and they need to be considered. One might be an SUV. Ford China has not been able to enter the market segment, which is still bullish in China, due to limited resources such as factories and marketing capabilities.　　Ford China has planned, Fox, the new carnival, Monty Ougeu can become the Chinese market "iron triangle", but one of the key to the middle-level car Ougeu, Ford China has been unable to find the right answer. The prospect of Ford China depends largely on Graziano, the Mulla Golitsyn, the CEO of China. In the last six months, he began to appear frequently.　　He learned some simple Chinese dialogues and even used chopsticks to eat. But for a car brand that has been in China for years, winning the same position in the Chinese market as it does in the US and Europe is simply not enough for the CEO to show a few words of Chinese.