Ford ’s U.S. market share will likely shrink even more before the company can stabilize and start growth once again, a new report finds. Ford blames the slumping U.S. economy and fierce foreign competition for the company’s slip in market share.
At a press event held last night, Ford CEO Alan Mulally said that the automakers U.S. retail market share could fall below the 13% mark. Toyota surpassed Ford as the number two automaker in the U.S. last year.
Instead, Mulally says the Ford will let the market dictated how many vehicles it will produce and will not rely so heavily on incentives to sell vehicles.
Although Ford’s sales shrunk again in 2007, the automaker managed to reduce its losses and return better-than-expected profits. “We do want to stabilize share and then we want to start growing it again,” Mulally told Automotive News. “But we’re not going to draw an arbitrary line about where that happens.”
Despite Ford’s claims that it has no plans to end Mercury production, Mulally gave a less-than-enthusiastic assessment of Mercury’s future. “We’re committed to Mercury,” he said. Mulally then qualified his answer: “We’re continuing to review our portfolio. That’s an ongoing assessment we continue to have, and should have.” Mulally also emphasized that Lincoln will take over as the volume brand in the Lincoln-Mercury franchise.
Mercury recently got snuffed by Ford when the automaker announced that it would give a Ford Flex-based model to Lincoln, not Mercury.
Despite the Blue Oval’s sliding U.S. market share, Ford continues to see growth in overseas market — particularly in China where it saw a 30% sales growth in China.
