Focus on Asia

The Asia Pacific region offers tremendous opportunities for our Company. The fastest-growing markets for automobiles are in rapidly developing countries, especially China and India. China will remain the largest car market in the world for the foreseeable future, and we estimate that India will be the third-largest market in the world for the coming decade. By 2020, annual vehicle sales in the Asia Pacific region will likely top 52 million vehicles. To keep pace with this enormous growth, we are building new plants and expanding existing ones, hiring workers, increasing our dealer networks, and further developing our supply chain across China, India and Thailand.

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.

In 2011, our sales in China grew steadily, breaking the half-million mark with 519,390 wholesale vehicles sold, compared to 483,288 in 2010 – a 7 percent increase. We’re on track to deliver on our promise to bring 15 new vehicles to China and add 340 new dealerships – to double the number of dealers – by 2015. In India, meanwhile, Ford sold 96,270 domestic wholesale units in 2011, a 14 percent increase from the previous year.

We are investing more than $6 billion in Asia Pacific (and Africa) and currently employ some 25,000 people in the region. Our investments include the following:

• In April 2012, Ford announced a $600 million expansion in Chongqing and a new $760 million plant in Hangzhou. This $1.3 billion investment will double Ford’s passenger car production capacity in China to 1.2 million units by mid-decade. Ford’s investments in China and across Asia represent our biggest global expansion in 50 years.
• In 2011, we broke ground on a new $350 million transmission plant in Chongqing, China, at our Changan Ford Mazda Automotive joint venture. This will be our first transmission plant in China, with initial capacity of 400,000 six-speed transmissions.
• CFMA built a new $490 million assembly plant, which came online in early 2012, and is building a $500 million state-of-the-art engine plant in Chongqing. In 2012, Ford announced we would expand production at the facility by 350,000 additional units.
• Ford and our commercial vehicle investment Jiangling Motors Corp. are investing $300 million for an assembly plant in Nanchang, China, for Ford and JMC branded vehicles.
• In early 2012, we announced we will be investing $142 million to build a new compact SUV – the EcoSport – at our plant near Chennai, India.
• We are investing $72 million to increase production capacity at our Chennai engine plant.
• We broke ground in 2011 on a $1 billion integrated manufacturing facility in Sanand, Gujarat, India. The new plant will create 5,000 jobs and will be able to initially produce 240,000 vehicles and 270,000 engines per year, starting in 2014.
• In Thailand, we have invested $450 million in a new plant in Rayong province that will be building the Ford Focus in 2012 for Thailand and other Asian markets.