Ford's sales in China fell 30% in the first nine months. What went wrong with Ford in China?

In the first nine months of this year, Ford's sales in China fell 30% year-on-year, and the decline in September alone reached 43%.

The sluggish sales of Changan Ford are the main reason for the decline in Ford's sales in China. The cumulative sales of Changan Ford, Ford's joint venture in China, in the first nine months were only 318,000 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 46%.

Changan Ford's sales in September fell 55.4% year-on-year, making it the company with the most serious decline among the top 20 automakers in the country.

This year, the overall auto market in my country is sluggish, but in the first nine months, the sales volume of China's passenger car market was basically the same as that of the same period last year, while Changan Ford's sales volume fell by 46% year-on-year. Obviously, Changan Ford cannot attribute the reason to the bleak performance of the overall auto market.

The Sino-US trade dispute is not the main reason for the decline in Changan Ford's sales. As an American car brand, General Motors' sales in China fell slightly by 2.5% in the first three quarters of 2018 compared with the same period last year, while SAIC-GM's sales in the first nine months increased by 5.3% year-on-year.

Changan Ford's parent company Ford sold 3.667 million vehicles worldwide in the first eight months of this year, down 6.8% year-on-year, 238,000 fewer vehicles than the same period last year. Changan Ford's sales in the first eight months alone fell by 215,000 vehicles compared to the same period last year.

The slow iteration of Ford's models in the Chinese market is the main reason for its sluggish sales in China. Ford's problems of small space and high fuel consumption have not been well solved.

Quality issues are also a shortcoming of Changan Ford. The broken axle of Kuga and the odor in the interior of Mondeo have had a very bad impact on Ford's brand image. The "2017 National Consumer Association Received Auto Product Complaints Analysis Report" shows that Changan Ford received 850 complaints in 2017, ranking first among all brands.

Ford urgently needs to adjust in China to reverse the downward trend of sales. Currently, the automotive industry is undergoing a transformation towards intelligent networking. Ford should face up to its own problems and solve them in a timely manner. Otherwise, Ford is likely to fall into a more disadvantageous position because it cannot keep up with the changes in the automotive industry.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.