Focus on Asia

Our future competitiveness depends largely on our ability to meet growing consumer demand for vehicles in the Asia-Pacific area. If we want to remain competitive, we must have a strong presence in Asia, which will account for 70 percent of the world’s population growth over the next five years. The fastest-growing markets for automobiles are in rapidly developing countries, especially China and India.

Ford has been operating in China through two joint ventures: Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Corporation, Ltd. (CFMA), which began production in 2003, and Jiangling Motors Corporation, Ltd. (JMC), which assembles Ford and JMC vehicles for distribution in China.

We have invested more than $4 billion in Asia and currently employ some 25,000 people in the region. We are expanding our production capacity in China, India and Thailand, building several new production plants to help meet the needs of the rapidly expanding consumer base.

In China, for example, automakers have been struggling to keep pace with demand. Ford had a record year in China in 2010, selling more than 465,000 units – a 32 percent increase over the previous year. We have been adding dealerships – more than 100 in 2010, for example – in the western and northern regions of China especially. We now have about 340 dealers in China. (For more information on our expansion in the region, please see the Economy section of this report.)