Ford stops car production in Brazil
- The US carmaker Ford has announced that it is shutting down car production in Brazil, a year after it pulled out of Russia. Fourth group in the country during a long period, but far behind FCA, VW and GM (which together represent 50% of production and sales in Brazil in 2020), Ford has started to see other groups selling more vehicles: Renault-Nissan from 2012, Hyundai-Kia from 2016 and Toyota since 2019, which is closely follow Ford.
- Brazil is today the fourth largest market of the Ford group, behind the NAFTA zone, Europe and China. However, Ford believes that the volumes sold in the country are not enough to maintain production there. This can be understood because only two small models are produced for the local market: the Ford Ka(A-segment) and EcoSport(B-segment). This decision finalise the decline of Brazil's position in Ford's overall production. In fact, in 2020, Brazil only represented 3.5% of Ford's global automobile production, compared to 8.5% in 2009.
- The American carmaker has announced that it wants to focus on the production of SUVs and pick-ups in the NAFTA zone for the North American market. In addition, and despite equivalent volumes in Brazil, production in China appears to be mandatory and therefore maintained. Europe (Ford's second production area in the world), could therefore supply the Brazilian market in the future with sedans and SUVs of small segments. Ford does have a production unit in Argentina (50,000 units in 2019) but mainly produces Ranger pick-ups there. It is not inconceivable that Argentinian production will also be stopped in favour of Thailand, a country which specializes in the production of pick-ups. For Brazil, this is the second defection of a carmaker after Mercedes.
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