Ford expects the Asia Pacific region and Africa (APA) to make up a third of its global sales by 2020.
Kumar Galhotra, Ford’s vice president for product development in APA said 17% of its global sales are mainly from Australia, China, Thailand and South Africa. Galhotra also mentioned that he expects a growth of 60-70% from this region in this decade.
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“We see tremendous growth potential in Asia Pacific and Africa region in this decade with India emerging as the third largest automotive market in the world by the end of the decade” Galhotra said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
“Right now, about one out of every six Ford customer is from the Asia Pacific region, but by 2020 it will go up to one out of three,” he added.
Sales focus was directed towards emerging markets such as India and China, after the global slowdown of the economy caused major declines in US and Europe.
Ford plans to launch 50 new vehicles in Asia Pacific and Africa by 2020. The company is also building seven new manufacturing plants for vehicles and engines in regions such as China and India.
Ford’s sales totalled 838,000 vehicles in APA region in 2010, up 39% from previous year, while global sales increased 14% to 5.5m vehicles.
Ford plans to invest US$ 72m in its diesel plant in south India to increase its engine capacity by 32% to 330,000 units.
