Reuters reports that Ford’s Chinese partner, Changan Automobile Group, looking to escape a price war at home, is drawing up plans to export to markets such as the United States in coming years.
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The report cited a senior executive as source. Such a move would echo the recently formulated strategies of other Chinese carmakers.
Changan, parent of listed Changan Automobile Co. Ltd., China’s third-largest vehicle maker, must carve out markets abroad if it hopes to survive, Vice President Ma Jun said in an interview, Reuters said.
The Reuters report noted however that exporting may be a huge leap for a former military operation in the country’s land-locked Western region.
The report added that Changan sales jumped 43 percent to 579,000 units in 2004, helped partly by price cuts, outpacing the market’s 15 percent rise.
“The home market is limited. There will come a day when we have to go down the international path,” Ma reportedly said.
Ma also referred in the interview to selling cars in the US.
“They can come here: why should we not be able to go over there? There’s enough space on the planet,” he said.
