Ford have below 5% market share in China Automotive industry and considering this fact and also for increasing the sales, in Aug’ 2017, Ford Motor boosted up its global electrification strategy and signed a business partnership with China based automaker, Anhui Zotye, for the production and sales of electric vehicle in China. Peter Fleet (Vice president of Ford Group ) and Ying Jianren (Board director of Zotye Auto) signed the JV deal of 50:50, value $756 million ( approx 5 Billion RMB). This deal signed due to the Ford overall car sales in China was down by 7 % in 2016, worse than the industry average of a 3.8 % climb, Battling fierce competition from a band of local competitors and heavy support from government on the production of Electic Vehicle, these factors were also worked as catalyst for this deal. As per new JV, plan is to build a manufacturing plant in zhejiang proviance and selling of small electric cars. Territory EV was the Ford’s first purely electric vehicle in china with the mileage of 224 miles per charge this car was a small electric SUV.
This Partnership was the “Best of Ford, Best of China” strategy, as Zoyte was pioneer in all electric vehicle segment whereas Ford Motor company is a pioneer in Global product development and technology capabilites But consecutive loss in Zotye, 11.2 Billion Yuan loss in 2019 and in between 6 to 9 billion yuan in 2020, and CNY 731. 825 million in 2021, results in the End of their partnership. However Ford commented on that it was due to change in China EU industry and change in policies by the chinese communist party (subsidy) on the Electric Vehicles. There were many other allegations also imposed on the company, Zoyte Automobile, for instance Lithium battery supplier, Bak Power, filled a law suit due to outstanding payments etc. It seems as Ford motor ended up in wrong partnership with the EV industry in China. This partnership was the part of stratrgy by Ford Motors to invest in electric market in china ($22 billion through 2025) and launch more than 30 vehicles for example electric version of their famous F-150 truck and Transit Van.
Along with the end of partnership, there were two another reasons also causing slow down in Ford Motor electric vehicles sales. First one is the trust of car dealers in china. Although Ford Motor established a direct sales network, which operates in 20 cities. Name of this strategy was “One Stop, everything online” service appointments, pick-up and delivery of car but still Ford Motor did not able to please the customers in China automotive industry. Another reason of Ford motor’s sluggish sale is, Company's outdated product lineup as Ford did not launch any new model quick enough and also the mainstream models were also not updated for years in china. Even After getting in the partnership with the local chinese Automaker, Zoyte, only one electric car model was launched till 2020. This also raised the concern in between the automotive industry customers in China.
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