Ford Motor Co. wants to grab 10 percent of the Asian market by 2005, but it says that Southeast Asia's economic crisis has already forced a shift in plans in Malaysia and Thailand.
Ford executives based in Asia told a daylong seminar heralding the recent completion of a $500 million auto plant in Thailand that the company wants to improve market share from less than 1 percent and cash in on Asia's growing love affair with the car."People want more choice," said Michael Dunne, president of Ford's automotive resources in Asia. "The toughest thing we face is entrenched competition" from Japanese automakers who, in Thailand for example, command more that 90 percent of the market.
But though Ford's projections show that tens of millions more Asians will get behind a wheel in coming decades, key countries are facing a rough patch due to the currency crisis that has rocked Southeast Asia this year.
Malaysia raised duties on minivans and four-wheel-drives 50 to 200 percent on Friday to keep its current-account deficit in line. The tax increase means Ford is unlikely to import any more Explorers beyond the 100 brought in since July, said Richard Canny, general manager for Malaysia.
"This is probably the shortest-lived 4x4 program in the world," Canny said.
Overall, the company projects that 414,000 cars will be sold in Malaysia this year, but the figure should fall to 350,000 to 400,000 in 1998.
In Thailand, where Ford hopes to eventually manufacture 100,000 one-ton Marathon pickup trucks a year when the new plant gets going next May, vehicle sales plunged 70 percent in September as the collapse of a long economic boom has panicked Thai consumers.
Dave Snyder, Ford's boss in Thailand, refused to specify how Ford was adjusting its projected production because of the slump but indicated the company would focus on exporting the trucks until the economy turns around. The plant is also to make 30,000 kits that will be exported to other countries and assembled.
Vehicle sales in Thailand are expected to dip under 400,000 this year from nearly 600,000 in 1996. Snyder predicted that 1996 levels would probably not be reached again until 2000, depending on the turnaround of the Thai economy.
Ford has planned its return to Asia - after largely pulling out from the 1950s through 1970s due to political pressures - to survive expected downturns and profit from markets the auto giant feels will steadily expand in the next century, executives said.
Models are being expressly adapted to country specifics. In India, the popular Ford Escort is being manufactured in a venture with the Mahindra group with tougher suspension to survive Indian roads, heavy-duty air conditioning and a more durable horn.
"Every market has its own particularities, and it's a fact that Indian drivers are not happy unless they use the horn at least once every minute," said John Parker, the company's India chief.
Ford had 1,700 applicants for the first 12 dealerships in India, an indication of the country's long-term potential for auto sales.