The Ford Focus is hot in China and sales growth is outpacing overall market growth.
Ford Motor and its communist government dictated partners set a sales record during October in China as the firms sold 60,518 cars and light trucks. Market leader General Motors sold more than 250,000 vehicles during the same period in the world’s largest car market.
Ford’s sales increases were led largely by the new Focus, which sold 33,614 in October and more than 221,000 year to date. Ford is now claiming the Focus was the best selling passenger car in China during August and September, but accurate statistics are slow to emerge in China, which lacks consistent industry wide sales numbers.
Overall, Ford passenger car sales, which include vehicles produced at Changan Ford Mazda Automobile and imported Ford Edge SUVs, totaled 44,489. In the commercial vehicle market, sales at Jiangling Motors Corporation (JMC), another JV in China that builds Transits increased 14% in October, with 16,029 wholesale vehicles sold in October compared to 14,006 sold the same time last year.
