Wen Hao Ott is driving? Wang shuoqi
After three months of fermentation, China has changed from the most dangerous place in the world to the safest place in the world.
For Ford's joint venture Changan Ford in China, the impact of the epidemic on the factory shutdown seems to be limited.
Because Chongqing, where Changan Ford's main factory is located, is not the hardest hit area, the progress of returning to work is relatively early.
According to Chongqing Business Daily on February 2 1, just after 9: 00 a.m. on February 19, a newly assembled Changan Ford Sharp slowly pulled out of the assembly line, becoming the first off-line vehicle since Chongqing promoted the orderly resumption of production. On that day, * * * 5 1 Sharp and 29 Furuis were assembled from here.
As far as Changan Ford's position in China is concerned, the biggest difficulty is not production capacity, but how to increase sales.
1 month, Ford Motor Company released the sales data of 20 19 in China. Last year, the company sold 568,000 vehicles, down 26. 1% year-on-year, which is also the sharp decline of its sales in China for three consecutive years. The most striking thing is that the sales volume of Changan Ford suffered another "waist cut" in 20 19, from 378,000 vehicles in 20 18 to 20184,000 vehicles, down 5 1% year-on-year.
Compared with the data that Changan Ford's annual sales in China was close to 654.38+0 million in its heyday, it was already pitifully low.
Last April, Zhu Huarong, president of China Changan Automobile Group, said at the Shanghai Auto Show that with the expansion of Ford's product line in China, Changan Ford's sales will rebound at the end of this year.
Facing the sales achievement of 19, Chen Anning, President and CEO of Ford Greater China, calmly said: Although 20 19 was a "challenging" year for Ford, Ford's share in the high-end to luxury car market has stabilized, and the sales decline in the middle and low-end areas began to narrow in the second half of the year.
The two senior executives of Changan Ford predicted the same key time for sales recovery, that is, from the end of 20 19 to the beginning of 2020. Unfortunately, during this period, China was affected by the epidemic, which can be said to be a bad start.
Although Changan Ford achieved a small year-on-year growth in June 5438+February last year, it was also based on the sharp price reduction of terminals. Even so, Changan Ford still fell sharply year-on-year, which shows how critical the market situation it faces.
In terms of products, according to Changan Ford's plan, Changan Ford will launch at least 18 new models from 20 19 to 20021end of the year, including 5 new energy products. Last August, Changan Ford launched three new cars: Focus Active, Taurus and Sharp st (including Sharp ST-Line), which can be regarded as the further landing of its product strategy. After the release of these new products, Song Yang, president of NDSD of Changan Ford, once told the media: We have passed the darkest moment of this year. But in the end, these new cars did not achieve a substantial increase in sales.
In June 5438+February last year, Changan Ford launched Sharp, which is expected to increase sales. These cars are all equipped with a 2.0T turbocharged engine +8AT gearbox, and the whole system comes standard with a four-wheel drive system. The price range is18.98-210.88 million yuan.
It can be said that the three major components and cost performance have attracted a lot of attention. At present, affected by the epidemic, the sales volume is still less than 3,000 vehicles three months after listing, and there are still many uncertainties in the future market performance.
With the spread of the epidemic, Ford factories in different countries also suffered heavy losses.
On March 23rd, Ford Motor Company announced that it would suspend the production of vehicles and engines in Indian, South African, Thai and Vietnamese factories to cope with the increasingly serious impact caused by COVID-19.
Ford said that production in India will be suspended from March 2 1 day, and factories in other countries will be closed one after another. Ford also revealed that the shutdown will last for several weeks. Mark, President of Ford International Market? Ovenden said: "We will continue to take real-time actions. In addition, we will take additional safety measures to temporarily stop the production of our manufacturing base in the international market."
On March 17, Ford also decided to temporarily close all North American factories for two weeks to protect the health and safety of employees. At the same time, it was decided to suspend the production of the London factory from March 23 and the production of the Welsh factory from March 25.
Today, Ford announced that the shutdown time of the North American factory will be extended to March 30th.
Since March 20th, Ford Motor Company has announced that it will take a series of positive measures to further ensure the company's cash flow stability to cope with the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic. At present, Ford Motor Company has informed its creditors that the company will use the credit line of Ford Motor Company of 65.438+034 billion US dollars (about 95 billion yuan) and the credit line of Ford Motor Company of 2 billion US dollars (about 65.438+0465438+0 billion yuan). These new cash increases will be mainly used to offset the temporary working capital impact caused by the suspension of production due to the COVID-19 epidemic.
In addition, in view of the uncertainty of the overall economy and the sudden impact of COVID-19 on the business, Ford Motor Company decided to withdraw the financial performance target for 2020 released on February 4, and will provide the updated business target when the first quarter results are announced on April 28.
At the same time, Fitch downgraded Ford's credit rating to BBB- and gave a negative outlook. March 1 1 day, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam? Jonas also lowered Ford's target share price.
At this point, in addition to the production base in China, Ford's major factories around the world have been greatly affected.
However, Ford is looking for a new way out. Due to the epidemic, the car can't be built, but the related medical equipment is in short supply and can be started normally.
According to today's Tencent news report, Ford is cooperating with many parties to produce epidemic prevention materials.
On March 24th, in response to the epidemic crisis in COVID-19, Ford Motor Company decided to cooperate closely with companies such as 3M and GE Medical to give full play to its engineering design and manufacturing capabilities, design and rapidly produce much-needed medical equipment and protective appliances, and provide support and guarantee for first aid and medical staff and patients fighting against the COVID-19 epidemic.
In addition, Ford Motor Co., Ltd. and the United Auto Workers' Union (UAW) will work together to produce more than 654.38 million+transparent protective masks in the Ford Motor Factory every week to provide protection for medical personnel, factory workers and sales personnel. Ford will also make full use of its 3D printing equipment to produce medical N95 protective masks.
In order to put into production faster, Ford Motor Company and 3M Company concentrated their resources and made full use of existing parts to produce protective masks. These include the small fan used for seat ventilation in Ford F- 150 seat, and the 3M? HEPA air filter and a portable rechargeable battery pack can provide power for the protective mask for up to 8 hours.
In addition to 3M's production capacity, Ford Motor Company is currently evaluating that it will produce a brand-new electric air purification protective mask at its factory in Michigan to help 3M expand its production capacity by 10 times.
In addition, at the request of the relevant departments of the US government, Ford Motor Company is also cooperating with GE Medical to simplify the design and expand the production capacity of medical ventilator products used by GE Medical to treat patients with respiratory failure and dyspnea. In addition to GE Medical's production plant, these ventilators can also be produced in Ford's factory.
At the same time, Ford Motor Company cooperated with GE Medical to simplify the design and expand the production of ventilator products for treating patients with respiratory failure and dyspnea.
At the same time, Ford's design team in the United States is also accelerating the design and testing of a protective mask that can protect the whole face for medical and emergency personnel. This kind of protective mask can protect the whole face, prevent the face and eyes from accidental contact with droplets and liquids, and can be used together with the medical N95 mask to protect medical staff more effectively.
Bill Ford, Executive Chairman of Ford Motor Company (Bill? Ford) said: "For the people of the United States and the world, the development of the current COVID-19 epidemic is urgent. In this tense situation, we need to take timely action and cooperate. Through cross-industry cooperation, it can bring practical help to people on the front line of fighting the epidemic. In the past 1 17 years of Ford Motor Company, whenever faced with a crisis, we all stepped forward and made due contributions, and this time is no exception. "
But this contribution is actually a strategy of killing two birds with one stone. On the one hand, it can alleviate the impact of not being able to start work during the epidemic, and selling medical equipment can also alleviate some financial pressures of Ford. On the other hand, Ford's reputation level can also be improved to a certain extent and become a socially responsible enterprise.
However, this level of self-help still cannot completely offset the losses caused by the suspension of production, and Ford is still under great pressure on a global scale. The situation that cars can't be sold in China Changan Ford will inevitably further delay the time node of Ford's sales recovery. Overall, Ford's start in 2020 is very difficult.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.