Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) CEO, Mark Fields, has announced that his company would be focusing on driver-assist technology. Fields also noted that Ford would be introducing the Kuga SUV and the Syn-3 and Fordpass software in Europe. The company already has a list of semi-autonomous vehicles in the market, along with three autonomous vehicle research centers in California, Germany and Michigan. These changes, combined with recent notes from high management indicate that Ford is on a path of transitioning to an automotive and mobility company.
Ford has been making significant progress in its Chinese market. The company experienced a 36% increase in its sales during January 2016, as compared to the same period last year. However, the most significant change was observed in Europe, where the company had reported losses for several years. Fortunately, this year was different, as Ford finally reported a profit in the region.
Furthermore, the company’s recent move to introduce state-of-the-art vehicles in the region should help the company maintain a positive trend in sales. In both, Europe and China, improved sales were driven mainly due to the sale of SUVs. Hence, the company has decided to introduce fresh vehicles, with an increased focus on SUVs. Ford expects that it would be able to drive SUV sales in Europe up, by 30%, during 2016. The recent results should also help restore the faith of investors in the company.
Unfortunately, Ford’s biggest market, North America, experienced a decline of 2.6% in sales. This was below the industry average drop of 0.4%. However, Ford is trying to counter this problem, by expanding its current technologies, to a wider array of vehicles. The most recent update in this regard was the addition of Ford’s pothole technology in 2017 Fusion V-6 Sport. The feature was previously available only in the luxury cars from the company.
Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) had a trade volume of 500 and gained 3.76% during the February 22 session, to reach a close at $12.56.
