Ford Execs Sport Bracelets

BY MICHAEL ELLIS

LOS ANGELES — Ford Motor Co. plans to reverse its years of slumping U.S. sales with vehicles that are uniquely American in design, even as it prepares a cost-cutting program that will shrink the size of the company, a top executive said Wednesday.

Ford is expected to announce Jan. 23 plans to cut tens of thousands of hourly workers and close a handful of vehicle assembly plants, including perhaps its Wixom car plant, as part of its Way Forward plan to return North American operations to profitability.

But even with the cutbacks, Ford isn’t going to concede any more U.S. market share, said Mark Fields, president of the Americas, the company’s largest business operation that comprises the Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands in the United States, South America, Mexico and Canada.

“We will stabilize in the near term and ultimately grow our market share,” Fields said in a speech at the Greater Los Angeles Auto Show. “It’s not about, ‘Let’s shrink further.’ That’s a recipe for irrelevance.”

American design that stands apart from the competition is at the center of the company’s new rallying cry, Red, White & Bold. Fields is one of many Ford executives who are wearing rubber bracelets printed with the company’s internal slogan.

On Wednesday, Ford reported a 5% drop in its U.S. sales last year, for a 18.6% share of the U.S. market, down from 19.6% in 2004. Of the major global automakers, Ford, General Motors Corp. and Volkswagen AG are the only ones that posted weaker U.S. sales last year.

“We cannot go on with another 10 years of share decline,” Fields said.

One area in which Ford hopes to grow market share is in the subcompact segment of the car market. Ford will unveil at next week’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit a concept vehicle called the Reflex, said Freeman Thomas, director of strategic design. The Reflex, which pairs a hybrid system with a turbodiesel engine to achieve fuel economy of 65 miles per gallon, was conceived by Ford designers in California, Thomas said.

That segment of the market will grow markedly this year. Toyota Motor Corp. unveiled its Yaris small car at the Los Angeles show on Wednesday, and GM is scheduled to show its South Korean-built Chevrolet Aveo small car today.

“I think that segment is going to grow significantly over the next three or four years. That definitely is a segment we have to be in,” he said.

Ford plans to enter the market also, but not until about three years from now, Fields said. Despite being late to market, the Ford small car will have a totally American design that will set it apart from competitors, he said.

Original article by Detroit Free Press