"Changan Ford is moving upwards, Jiangling Ford is moving towards expansion."
Recently, BC received a piece of news. "Jiangling Ford will be incorporated into the Changan Ford system to integrate resources." From the perspective of Ford's development in China, this news is not unexpected, and is even expected.
After all, Ford's main actions in the Chinese market in recent years have been "reduction" and "focusing", and this strategy has also played a key role in Ford's recovery from the ICU. Although Ford has not yet announced it, sources said that the scalpel has already fallen, and the integration of Changan Ford and Jiangling Ford has begun on the channel side.
"Two become one".
For Ford, this is both a helpless move of strategic contraction and an inevitable choice to concentrate its efforts on major tasks. Of course, this is not an isolated case. Since this year, resource integration has become a choice for many car companies.
For example, after three months of negotiations, Zeekr and Lynk & Co carried out a strategic integration and officially established Zeekr Technology Group. Its goal is to become a world-leading high-end luxury new energy vehicle group with annual production and sales of millions in the next two years.
"Zeekr moves upwards, Lynk & Co moves broadly" can also be used to describe the strategic integration of Changan Ford and Jiangling Ford. "Changan Ford moves upwards, Jiangling Ford moves broadly". With the implementation of the integration, Ford will further deepen its collaboration in sales and marketing and will give full play to the advantages of resource integration.
"One Ford" is a good thing, but also a difficult thing.
The double-edged sword of focus
As we all know, Ford's sales in the Chinese market have been declining since 2016. The reasons are both macro and objective. There are constraints from the market's transition from fuel vehicles to electric vehicles, and there are also delays in Ford's strategic transformation in China.
However, faced with the dire situation, Ford has implemented a series of focused strategies, which is something Ford can control.
Once, in order to achieve better financial health, Ford made drastic adjustments to its product structure and business restructuring. Luxury brands such as Volvo, Jaguar, and Land Rover were all sold by Ford without hesitation.
Ford never hesitates to cut the Gordian knot. This time, the knife fell on the Chinese market, taking Changan Ford as an example.
In the production and sales report released by Changan Automobile, Changan Ford achieved sales of 247,000 vehicles in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 5.97%. In the current fierce competition and internal circulation, it is not easy. You know, in 2023, Changan Ford's sales were 233,000 vehicles, a year-on-year decline of 7.13%.
Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, revealed that Ford will achieve a profit of about US$600 million (about RMB 4.409 billion) in the Chinese market in 2024. "I am happy to tell you that Ford is profitable in China. I am proud of this because not all automakers can do this."
The key to turning losses into profits and achieving stable sales lies in Changan Ford's sorting and adjustment of its product line. In a word, "keep what should be kept and cut off what is dragging down". In short, it can be summed up in four words: "precise positioning".
There are two most direct benefits of precise positioning. One is that it can focus limited resources on core models, reducing costs and risks, and improving production efficiency. The other is that it can build a recognizable model matrix.
Under Changan Ford's drastic "subtraction", with "high horsepower + high intelligence" as its core competitiveness, it has built a full product matrix covering fuel, hybrid and pure electric vehicles, and will "merge similar items" of models on sale into six.
Among them, the modification and upgrade of products such as Fiesta and Focus will no longer be promoted, leaving Mondeo as one of the core models, and EVOS has also been merged into the Mondeo family. Under this strategy, the R&D cost of a single vehicle can be greatly reduced and the inventory turnover rate can be improved.
In addition, with the application of the high-horsepower E hybrid system, Edge L has become the sales pillar of Changan Ford as "the cost-effective choice in the mid-to-large SUV market", and Explorer has become the "king of the road" with its hard power of "more hardcore than luxury and more luxurious than hardcore".
This precise layout has enabled Changan Ford's product matrix to form a differentiated route of "big car + wild, high-end, fuel + hybrid". In addition, under the precise positioning strategy, Changan Ford has also closed some factories, and currently only Chongqing and Hangzhou factories remain, to improve production capacity utilization.
In the face of constant internal competition and crazy price wars, Changan Ford maintains a cautious but firm attitude towards transformation. It is committed to accelerating product launches, but at the same time emphasizes that it will not sacrifice the brand's differentiated characteristics in pursuit of market hotspots.
Therefore, under the focus strategy, Changan Ford's sales volume rebounded in 2024, maintaining the average price of its models at around 220,000 yuan, focusing on the mid-to-high-end market, and occupying a favorable market position with a stable brand strategy.
However, the blade of the quick cut was too sharp, and after streamlining the product line, Changan Ford's product line also left many gaps. Therefore, Ford CEO Wu Shengbo also admitted that "Ford has just come out of the operating room and is still in the ICU."
The most obvious is the blank in the new energy sector, with sales accounting for less than 10%. At present, Changan Ford has no other real new energy models except Ford Electric and Ruiji New Energy. After Ford Electric was introduced to the Chinese market in 2023, its sales have not met expectations.
In addition, more than 80% of Changan Ford's sales rely on the two fuel-powered models, Mondeo and Edge. However, the average monthly sales of these two models remain at 3,000 and 1,000 to 2,000 units, respectively, which is difficult to support the brand's long-term overall growth.
"Reduction and focusing" alone cannot cope with the huge impact of competition. Due to the double squeeze of fuel vehicles and new energy markets, Changan Ford's sales have declined for five consecutive months since 2025.
The dilemma is clear: electric vehicles are weak and gasoline vehicles are stuck. Changan Ford must find a solution. On June 7, at the Changan Ford booth at the Chongqing Auto Show, the new large five-seater Ford Explorer was launched, and Tengger sang a song "Where is the Road?"
So, where is the way forward?
Merger, a must-do move
To find a way, first find the cause.
What Ford needs to do is to further get rid of its dependence on Ford's global system and develop more models for Chinese users. Ford also knows that in today's Chinese market, it is necessary not only to focus on products accurately, but also to coordinate group resources more.
Therefore, the merger of Changan Ford and Jiangling Ford is a necessary move, which is not only needed by Changan Ford, but also by Jiangling Ford.
Looking back at history, Jiangling and Ford's relationship began earlier than Changan. As early as 1995, Jiangling and Ford began to cooperate in the production of the light bus Transit, which was also the first Ford model produced in China.
In 2006, Jiangling Motors began to plan its transformation into passenger car business. In 2015, with the introduction of Ford-branded products, the SUV Everest and the MPV Tourneo were successively launched on the market, and Jiangling began to establish a passenger car strategic layout with Ford.
However, the condition for Jiangling to use the Ford logo is that it must pay Ford 150 million yuan in "copyright fees" every year. This fee allows Jiangling Motors to further "save costs" on configuration and quality, which is not conducive to long-term development.
In order to avoid unnecessary waste of resources, in 2021, the cooperation between Jiangling and Ford entered a new stage. They jointly invested to establish the Jiangling Ford joint venture, which will mainly import Ford brand passenger cars for production and sales.
Ford believes that if it wants to maintain a foothold in the mainstream mass market, it must take a high-end or personalized differentiation route. Therefore, as Ford China opens the second carrier of passenger cars, in order not to form a competitive relationship with Changan Ford, Jiangling Ford is positioned as "focusing on the SUV and pickup truck market."
This positioning is also a favorable factor for Jiangling Ford to achieve rapid development, and is also one of the necessary conditions for the integration of Changan Ford and Jiangling Ford today.
"Only with different positioning can integration and complementarity be achieved. If they have duplicate positioning, integration means cutting off one of them, which will weaken Ford's power in the Chinese market," said an industry insider.
In other words, in terms of product line, Changan Ford needs Jiangling Ford, and vice versa.
In November 2022, Liu Jisheng took office as President of Jiangling Ford Technology, taking full responsibility for the passenger car business. At that time, Jiangling Ford Technology was in a dilemma of transformation, with insufficient brand competitiveness and frequent dealer withdrawal.
To achieve reshaping, it is necessary to have strong products as a bet, which is the powerful trump card of Jiangling Ford's "hard-line rise". From the product line investment in recent years, it can be seen that Ford attaches great importance to Jiangling Ford. From the classic models such as F-150 Raptor, Ranger to Bronco, Jiangling Ford has put them all.
In August 2023, Jiangling Ford launched a new channel brand "Ford Zongheng" to create a pure off-road culture and introduced Ford Lima, hoping to turn the niche off-road track into a new growth point. Against the background of the rapid development of new energy vehicles, the Jiangling Ford brand was once called the "new force of oil vehicles." At the same time, Liu Jisheng insisted that "fuel technology is more suitable for hardcore off-road."
"As we all know, as the representative of American pickup trucks, Ford has great opportunities in the Chinese market. As localization will reduce prices, it will become an important product line in Ford's passenger car system." This was the industry's evaluation when the Jiangling Ford Technology Joint Venture was established.
In fact, it is true.
The dual-track strategy of "sticking to traditional advantages + embracing technological change" has enabled Jiangling Ford to maintain a unique position in the new energy transformation and has become an indispensable partner of Ford in the Chinese market. With the introduction of a number of important models, the strategic value of Jiangling Ford technology to Ford is gradually emerging.
However, the tide of the times is so turbulent that Jiangling Ford's sales will be 39,000 and nearly 50,000 in 2023 and 2024. At the end of April last year, Ford's flagship model Ford Lima was officially launched, with annual sales of less than 8,000 units. These figures have reminded Jiangling Ford that "the crisis has come."
Just like the two sides of a coin, adjustment and crisis coexist.
The focused strategy has brought clearer brand positioning to Changan Ford and Jiangling Ford, but the pressure of individual operations has also exceeded expectations, especially the research and development of new energy and intelligent technology, which is a costly and lengthy process.
"Life and death depend on the fine line. Only through integration can we concentrate our efforts to accomplish great things." After the merger into "one Ford", the product line of the Changan Ford system has been further enriched, forming a full vehicle series matrix of sedans, SUVs, pickups and commercial vehicles.
Moreover, in the research and development of electrification and intelligence, Ford can focus more resources and, with the help of Changan Group's new energy research and development and supply chain resources, launch more localized electric models, and maintain the vitality and market competitiveness of its product line with a unified platform and technology.
At the same time, under "One Ford", the coordinated development of the Ford and Lincoln brands will be further enhanced.
The strategic goal is clear and the operational plan has been determined. The merger of Ford's two passenger car systems can be said to be an important step in Ford's strategic adjustment in China, and it can also be regarded as a bold and disruptive change.
The difficulty is how to quickly adapt?
In conclusion:
After Ford's brand collaboration, what new cooperation model will it have with Changan Automobile? From the previous changes, we can get a glimpse of it.
In order to focus on the electrification transformation, Changan Ford and Changan Automobile reached a new joint venture in 2023 to jointly establish Changan Ford New Energy Vehicle Technology Co., Ltd., in which Changan Automobile holds a 70% stake. The main business includes the supply of mainstream brand new energy passenger vehicles and the distribution of Ford brand models.
In other words, Changan Ford's two core businesses are "selling Ford brand cars" and "OEM new energy vehicles for Changan Automobile." This new cooperation model is not only an innovation of the traditional joint venture cooperation model, but also an in-depth study of the new energy market.
In terms of product planning, Changan Automobile and Ford Motor Company will give full play to their leading advantages in brand, technology, manufacturing, market and cost, base themselves on breakthroughs and innovations in the Chinese market, and increase the proportion of local research and development of new energy products.
This time, the merger of the two Ford systems also means that Ford's efforts to create the "smile curve" in the new energy era will be further enhanced and more localized.
(Original title: "Exclusive | Jiangling Ford merges into Changan Ford, from now on there is only "one Ford"")
