Ford And VW Report Robust Sales

Both Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen Group have reported robust sales in China for the first three quarters of 2006.

Ford, United States' second largest automaker, boasts its combined sales of its brands Ford, Lincoln, Volvo, Jaguar and Land Rover. It was divulged by said automaker that the figures rocketed by 105.5 percent to 114,685 units starting from January to September this year. The company also said China sales under the Ford brand, for passenger cars and commercial vehicles locally produced and imported, soared by 111 percent to 106,237 units in the first three quarters of this year.

Ford's latest lineup includes Edge, Shelby GT500 and Mustang. Other Ford brands will continue its lineup which features modifications and several upgrades. Lincoln, for one, boasts its modifications to Lincoln Town Car parts to come up with a more interesting new vehicle.

Cheng Meiwei, vice-president of Ford and chairman of Ford Motor China said, "Ford Motor Company is poised for an exciting full-year performance in 2006 in China and is ready to continue its rapid growth in 2007."

On one hand, Volkswagen has announced its perfected sale of 524,558 cars in China during the first three quarters. The figure has significantly increased by 28.7 percent from the previous year's record. FAW Volkswagen's most recent lineup includes Audi A6 and A4, Bora, Caddy, Jetta, Golf, and Sagitar.

According to Winfried Vahland, executive vice-president of Volkswagen Group and president of Volkswagen Group China, "We can state already today that we will achieve all three targets of our Olympic Restructuring Program for this year (in China). The three targets are a stabilized market share, better sales than in 2005 and positive financial results."

Ford, the Detroit-based automaker, is also engaged in two joint ventures with Chang'an Motor Corp and Jiangling Motor Corp, the former is one of China's top vehicle producers and the latter is a growing company. Chang'an Ford produces Fiesta, Focus, Mondeo and Volvo S40. Ford is also building a new plant in the East of China. This plant will also be utilized by its Japanese affiliates that include Mazda Motor, and Chang'an. Next year, said plant will begin to assembly Ford and Mazda vehicles.

Major automakers like General Motors, Toyota, Honda, PSA Peugeot Citroen and Hyundai have not yet divulged their China sales report for the first three quarters of this year.

Pamela Hewitt is marketing consultant of a successful auto body shop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This 39 year old is also a prolific writer, contributing automotive related articles to various publications. She is also an offroad enthusiast.