Dubai: The Middle East and Africa territory finally gets “a seat at the head table” in Ford Motor Co.’s grand scheme of things. This is according to the just confirmed president of the newly created business unit, one of five within the company’s reporting structure. It all takes effect from January 1.
The upgrade of the region comes with the realisation that these markets would see its new car volumes growing by 40 per cent from current levels to total 5.5 million units by 2020. It directly places the region up for one of the fastest growing trajectories anywhere.
“It allows us to combine product opportunities rather than look disparately at what we do in these markets,” said Jim Benintende, who will now be based in Dubai. In fact, he had an earlier stint in the region in the early part of the last decade.
What does it mean in actual terms? On the product side, Ford is unleashing a launch blitz by packing in 17 models - new as well as refreshed versions of existing models - in the next 24 months. The US carmaker launched two new models at the Dubai event, the small SUV EcoSport and its volume generator, the all-new Fusion.
There will be flexibility on the sourcing - Ford’s plant in South Africa could be pulled in to supply models within the territory. “The footprint is wide given we also have plants in Turkey and Valencia, which is such a short connecting distance to the North African territory,” said Benintende.
“The truth is Ford has a full family of vehicles and we will bring the full breadth of the range of the Middle East.”
