Ford Motor Co has scrapped a plan to create a unified national sales company for...
SHANGHAI/DETROIT - Ford Motor Co has scrapped a plan to create a unified national sales company for China that stoked mistrust of the automaker at its joint venture partners and contributed to a spectacular collapse in sales in the world’s biggest car market.
“I would say there was a lack of deep understanding on how relationships work in China,” Anning Chen, who in October took over as Ford’s third China chief in two years, said in an interview in Shanghai. Capacity cuts as Ford and its partners embark on “right-sizing” their plants are also likely, Chen said.
“You can be a profitable business in China with a relatively low market share because of...the size of the market,” he said. Chen, a U.S. citizen who grew up in China and speaks fluent Mandarin, joined Ford in October from Chery Automobile Co. He is however, a Ford veteran, having worked for the firm for 17 years, mostly in Dearborn, prior to joining Chery.Highlighting the uneasy relationship that the joint venture partners have with each other and with Ford has been unhappiness over a cross distribution arrangement for a small sport-utility vehicle, the Territory.
While Ford previously touted the arrangement as a success, Chen was more circumspect, saying similar agreements were unlikely as they can create inconsistencies in dealer services.
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