Ford Plans for Asia.....No Mention of Australia!!!!

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"DEARBORN, Mich. -- Ford Motor plans to take its Lincoln luxury brand to the Chinese market and turn China, India and Thailand into major Asian production hubs to strengthen its presence in a region the automaker has yet to fully cultivate.

Chief Executive Officer Mark Fields announced the medium-term plan through 2020 here Monday. He stressed that the company plans to continue investing in Asia -- a region seen accounting for 48% of the global auto market in 2020.

Ford aims to lift global sales volume by 50% to 9.4 million vehicles by that year and wants to expand Asian sales to one-third of the total from less than 20% today.

The company grew sales by 50% in China last year by touting its compact offerings. Debuting Lincoln there is the next step. The brand is now exclusive to North America, selling just 100,000 units a year."
http://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Comp...ensive-in-Asia

Ford is targeting triple this figure in 2020, with the Chinese market accounting for nearly half. It will invest $2.5 billion, mainly in China, to expand dealership networks and bolster its lineup.

The automaker plans to build two factories each in China and India. Similar projects will likely be added within a few years, said David Schoch, president for the Asia-Pacific region.

Ford envisions an Asian output capacity of 2.7 million units a year in 2020. This is up 70% from current levels, requiring the biggest investment by Ford in the past half century, according to Schoch.

But the company will not simply chase numbers, Fields warned. He appeared to have in mind the bitter lesson of five years ago, when the company nearly went bankrupt after an ill-conceived production blitz in North America.

Ford plans to make China, Thailand and India its big three Asian production hubs, and to introduce efficient, mixed-model production lines picked up from longtime Japanese partner Mazda across the region by 2017.