Ford Motor unveils new model lineup at Auto China 2018, announces new personnel changes

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On April 25, Ford Motor unveiled its new model lineup at Auto China 2018 in Beijing, including the New Mondeo plug-in hybrid version, the off-road pickup Ford Ranger Wildtrak, the hyber-performance off-road pickup Ford F-150 as well as a new-generation mid-size mix, such as the new Escort, the new Focus and the Focus hatchback version. Meanwhile, the automaker announced its latest personnel changes in China's market. 

It is noteworthy that the New Mondeo plug-in hybrid version is Changan Ford's first NEV model. Besides, the new Focus is China's first model carrying the Ford's Co-Pilot360™ intelligent driver-assist system. In addition, the automaker also confirmed that the next-generation Ford Explorer will be manufactured in Changan Ford's plant. 

Ford Motor has built partnerships with many Chinese tech companies like Alibaba and Baidu to cooperate in such technologies as human-vehicle interaction, connectivity and autonomous driving. For instance, in December last year, the automaker signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba to explore cooperation in areas such as cloud computing, connectivity and retail which could involve the sale of Ford vehicles on Alibaba's online retail platform Tmall. In March this year, both parties unveiled a “car vending machine” in Guangzhou, which was a five-storeys building containing 42 models including the Ford Explorer SUV and Mustang.

Later this year, Ford Motor will set up a new national distribution service unit in China that will undertake marketing and service businesses of all Ford-branded imported vehicles and locally-produced passenger vehicles (PV) in this country.

What's more, Ford Motor plans to add 5 new models to local production in China from 2019 to 2025, including the first Ford-branded small-sized pure electric SUV model and the next-generation Explorer.

In the meantime, the automaker announced that Ford Motor has appointed Li Hongpeng as the Great China Region's vice president of marketing and sales and Chen Ye as Great China Region's vice president of strategy and partnership. Their appointments will come into effect in May 7 and May 16 respectively.

According to Ford China's official news, Li Hongpeng is expected to play an important role in building unified channels for the sales and services of all Ford PVs. Besides, Chen Ye will take charge of Ford Motor's overall strategic planning in China as well as partnership management.