Ford starts making Fiesta hatchback in Nanjing

Shanghai, January 15 (Gasgoo.com) Ford Motor started manufacturing the Fiesta subcompact car at a plant in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing on Thursday, the Dow Jones Newswires reported, citing a company statement on Wednesday.

The Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Company's Nanjing plant will produce the five-door hatchback and four-door sedan versions of the new global Fiesta for the Chinese market and the vehicles will go on sale later in the first quarter, the company said.

The U.S. automaker has been touting Fiesta, its second-best selling vehicle behind the Ford Focus, as the first in 'a series of global cars.'

The latest version of the Fiesta debuted last year in Europe, with 61,000 cars sold so far, Ford said.

The Fiesta will go on sale in North America in early 2010 and will be produced at Ford's Cuautitlan Assembly Plant in Mexico. And also in that year, Ford and Mazda's joint-venture facility, Auto Alliance Thailand, in Rayong will begin producing the new Fiesta for other major Asian markets.

Car sales at Changan Ford Mazda, the joint venture between Ford, its affiliate Mazda Motor and China's Changan Automobile, fell 5.9% to 204,344 in 2008 as the economic slowdown hit Chinese demand for vehicles.