Ford China Announces USD 600 Million Chongqing Assembly Plant Expansion, Raising Annual Capacity by 350,000 Vehicles

CHONGQING, China, 5 April, 2012 – Continuing its aggressive global growth, Ford Motor Company today announced that it will expand its state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in Chongqing, China, to meet growing demand in the world’s largest auto market.

 

Ford and its joint venture Changan Ford Mazda Automobile (CFMA) will invest approximately USD 600 million to expand capacity in Chongqing by 350,000 passenger vehicles, raising total capacity in China to 950,000 vehicles annually. The new investment will increase Ford’s total investment in China to approximately USD 4.1 billion.

 

"We are going further in China and across Asia,” said Joe Hinrichs, president of Ford Asia Pacific and Africa. “This expansion is an investment in Ford’s long-term future, globally and will help us to achieve our goal of increasing worldwide sales by nearly 50 percent by mid-decade to about 8 million vehicles per year. With this additional investment and capacity expansion, Ford continues to lay the foundation for long-term growth in the world’s largest automotive market.”

 

The expansion reconfirms Ford’s commitment to China, and will extend the facilities at Chongqing – the largest global manufacturing location for Ford outside southeast Michigan –with a new assembly line, body and paint shop. CFMA already operates two assembly plants and an engine plant in Chongqing, with another engine plant and a transmission plant currently under construction

Construction on the extension is expected to begin immediately and the first vehicle is expected to come off the line in late 2014.

 

“With a current growth rate of about 5%, the Chinese auto industry remains the biggest growth market in the world,” said Dave Schoch, chairman and CEO, Ford China. “Expanding our production capacity in Chongqing is a key part of our aggressive growth plans in China and Asia, and will allow us to bring more high quality, safe, fuel efficient, fun-to-drive vehicles from our global portfolio to Chinese customers.”

 

 The announcement follows the opening in February of CFMA’s second assembly plant in Chongqing, a fully integrated facility to support stamping, body assembly, paint, trim and final assembly which is home to the all-new Ford Focus and incorporates global industry best practices to efficiently and safely produce high quality vehicles with minimal environmental impact.

The all-new Focus is built on Ford's global C-platform, or mid-size vehicle chassis. At Chongqing and elsewhere across the world, up to ten different kinds of vehicles and a total of 2 million units will be produced globally by Ford on this platform.

 

Ford will introduce 15 new vehicles and 20 new engines and transmissions in China by 2015 as part of its plan to broaden its product portfolio and powertrain offering in China.

 

Utilizing state-of-the-art technologies such as turbocharging, direct injection, twin independent variable camshaft timing (Ti-VCT) and six-speed transmissions, the upgraded powertrain portfolio will deliver over 20% in fuel economy improvement to Ford's passenger vehicle fleet in China by 2015 while reducing tailpipe carbon dioxide emissions by 20%.

After several years of considerable growth, Ford's joint venture, CFMA, has established itself as one of the leading passenger car manufacturers in China. CFMA is well known in China for its high-quality cars, as well as the development and introduction of advanced environmentally friendly technologies. In addition to the plants in Chongqing, CFMA assembly and manufacturing plants are located in Nanjing, China.