Changan Ford moves into new phase of rapid development

Changan Ford stepped into a new phase in capitalizing on China's automobile market when the company announced Thursday the opening of 88 new dealers to join its massive dealer points around China.

A grand opening ceremony held in Shanghai featuring traditional Chinese performances like drums and lion dancing mirrored the automobile giant's Chinese ambition - keep striding confidently forward in the world's largest automobile market.

Changan Ford has successfully introduced a number of new models including the Ford New Focus and Ford Kuga.

In 2013, Changan Ford sold an accumulative total of 678,951 units, a year-on-year growth of 62 percent over 2012.

In the first five months of 2014, the Changan Ford lineup had sales of 330,771 units, with an accumulative year-on-year increase of 43 percent.

Consumer demand, resulting in the sales increase, created Changan Ford's need for the expansion of its dealer points.

With the newly launched 88 dealers, the total number of Changan Ford's dealer points in China rises to 750, and the figure is still growing.

"The newly-opened 88 dealers allow us to better serve our growing Chinese customer base and improve their ownership experience. With the growth momentum, we expect to exceed 800 dealer points in China by the end of 2014," said Marin Burela, president and CEO of Changan Ford Automobile Co.

As vehicles in first-tier cities started to be oversupplied, Changan Ford mapped out one-third of its dealer points deep into the less developed central and western regions in China.

About 75 percent of dealer points are based in small cities, which the company said represents the growing customer demand in these areas.

What drives the expanding of dealer points is an ever growing manufacturing capacity.

"We will launch our third plant in Chongqing in the future and you also know that our Hangzhou plant will also go into production in 2015, and both of these investments are being made strategically to ensure that we meet demand with supply in the area where we see the market is growing, " Burela told reporters during the interview.