A top Ford regional executive has forecast China new vehicle growth in 2012 several percentage points lower than an official forecast.
Ford Asia-Pacific president Joe Hinrichs expects “about 5%” in 2012, lower than the 8% projection by the official China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, Dow Jones reported.
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Passenger and commercial vehicles sales in China rose 2.5% to 18.51m vehicles in 2011 after growth of 32.4% in 2010 and 46% in 2009, helped by government incentives.
“It’s pretty clear that with an industry that’s well over 18m units, the government doesn’t feel the need to have to provide a lot of extra incentives to sell cars,” Hinrichs told Dow Jones Newswires.
He said Ford expects its own sales to exceed the industry average, despite a weak start, as it expands production facilities and introduces new models but did not give specific figures. The company reported a 41.9% year on year drop in sales for January to 30,976 vehicles due to a holiday-shortened buying period and reduced inventory. Ford sold 519,390 vehicles in 2011, up 7% year on year.
Hinrichs said he expects sales to rebound in the second-half, particularly for commercial vehicles, which were hurt by tight credit availability in 2011 – the automaker has a commercial vehicle joint venture with Jiangling Motors.
“Hopefully, with the government getting more comfortable with where inflation is, we can see a little bit of easing off of the tightening,” with a potentially “strong effect” on the overall industry, Hinrichs said.
Hinrichs also said Ford expects strong demand for the latest Focus to be produced for domestic sale at a new factory in southwestern China’s Chongqing municipality that opens on 24 February.
“(The factory) starts out with an initial capacity of 150,000 units, but we certainly can expand it, and intend to expand it over time,” Hinrichs said.
Hinrichs declined to comment in detail on whether Ford will invest in building additional factories in China as it introduces 15 new models by 2015, saying only that it has “more growth plans” and that the approval process for new plants “takes time.”
Ford is building an engine and transmission plant in Chongqing, and a vehicle assembly plant in Nanchang, Jiangxi province with Jiangling Motors.
While car production in China will only be for the domestic market, Hinrichs said “there may be some limited exporting of transmissions or engines” made in China.
