JMC Chairman Wang Xigao and Ford President and Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally celebrate seven million Transit vans.
Ford Motor Company has produced seven millionth Transit commercial vans. After passing the first million sales milestone in 1976, Transit passed the next ones in 1985, 1994, 2000, 2005 and 2010.
The milestone was celebrated at the official opening of a new Transit assembly plant in Nanchang, China, attended by Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally. The Jiangling Xiaolan facility is the result of a $300 million investment by Ford’s strategic partner Jiangling Motors Corporation, and produces JMC-branded vehicles and Ford-branded vehicles for the growing Chinese market. JMC is 31.5% owned by Ford.
In addition to launching its JMC Xiaolan Plant, Ford and JMC also announced plans for a brand new engine plant in its Xiaolan manufacturing base. The new engine plant will have initial annual capacity of 200,000 units.
As part of its expansion of the JMC partnership, Ford will bring two new global products to JMC: an all-new Ford commercial vehicle as well as an all-new Ford SUV. When launched, Ford will have a full portfolio of vehicles in the heavy-duty truck, light commercial, and SUV segments in China. In August 2012, JMC bought Taiyuan Heavy Truck, giving Ford a foothold in the heavy-duty truck segment through JMC.
Transit first launched in 1965 in Europe – where it popularized the slang ‘white-van man’ for the numerous workers using them, and is now sold in 118 markets across six continents. In a release, Ford said that lined end to end, the seven million Transits would stretch from London to Sydney back again.
There is all-new 2-ton Transit scheduled for European launch in spring 2014 as part of a redesigned and expanded range of models for Europe that also includes the Transit Custom, Transit Connect and Transit Courier.
Transit production first expanded beyond Europe in 1997 with new facilities in Nanchang, China, and Hai Duong, Vietnam. The new Jiangling Xiaolan plant more than doubles JMC’s annual commercial vehicle production capacity to 545,000 units from 245,000 units. The global expansion of Transit production will see the Transit manufactured in North America for the first time in Kansas City, Missouri dunning the middle of 2014.
