Ford was the world’s first global car maker and, if things go to plan, it will once again be the great automotive internationalist. The ‘world car’ — one type of car that appeals from London to LA and from Sydney to Shanghai — is the key to Ford’s return to profitability, or so new CEO Alan Mulally hopes.
The old Model T didn’t just put America on wheels. It was also assembled in England (in Manchester’s Trafford Park) and throughout Europe, as well as Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Japan. Everyone wanted inexpensive mobility back then, and they weren’t too bothered about size, body configuration or ‘brand’.
But when the Model T died in 1927, tastes began to separate. America is a big country and many of its towns, homes and suburbs were built for motorised transport. In Europe and much of Asia, cars had to adapt to ancient cities with narrow streets and no garage space. Old World and New World cars evolved into separate species. Cheap oil made American cars even more expansive.
One or two cars had global appeal — the Volkswagen Beetle was an unlikely example — but it wasn’t until the Japanese succeeded with single vehicles in disparate markets such as America, Australia and Europe that Ford’s bosses — sitting on a multinational business with manufacturing in every continent — started to resurrect Henry Ford’s idea of a ‘world car’.
The potential attractions are obvious. One model, built and sold globally, reduces the global model range, cutting development costs and increasing economies of scale. Ford’s first modern-day ‘world car’ was the first-generation Mondeo launched in 1993. It succeeded in Europe but flopped elsewhere.
Next up was the Focus in 1998, a European-developed car that was a hit in Europe but struggled in America, not least because the American version was ‘dumbed down’ with awkward style and blancmange suspension.
So there must have been some furrowed brows among Ford shareholders and management when Mulally promised a ‘new’ strategy he tagged ‘One Ford’. The logic was that Ford make some great cars in Europe that should surely appeal to recession-ravaged Americans keen to downsize and save gasoline bills. Equally, international tastes are converging.
So ‘One Ford’ is being rolled out. First up is the pretty European Fiesta, on sale in the US this summer, and next is the new-generation Focus, also Euro developed and due to hit European and American streets early next year.
So why will Americans buy European Fords now? According to Ford’s American boss Mark Fields, US buyers will keep on downsizing and sales of B (Fiesta) and C (Focus) class cars will blossom: “Before, our world cars were really trying to buck the market. Now, they are perfectly in tune with it.”
Other companies disagree. Japanese companies now tend to build separate cars (with common components) for Europe and America, and Volkswagen thinks substantial local differentiation is essential. Plus, what happens if gasoline prices drop and Americans
go back to colossal cars?
Going global is risky. If it succeeds, Ford may return to its former primacy (ten years ago, it was the world’s most profitable carmaker). If not, the one big US carmaker to avoid bankruptcy last year may yet crash, just as GM and Chrysler did so ignominiously.
Gavin Green is a motoring journalist and consultant
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