Americans, Eat Your Heart Out: China Gets New Fiesta Now
In the olden days, the headquarter markets got all the new toys first. Joint ventures and subsidiaries abroad had to wait a whole generation, until tooling, machinery, sometimes whole assembly lines were crated up and shipped abroad. Especially in China, this had attracted criticism, as in “we don’t want your hand-me downs.” With computer aided manufacturing and robots, the introduction of new models to other markets was sped up significantly. Now, China can’t complain anymore. This week. Ford China started manufacturing the seventh Generation Fiesta subcompact at their Nanjing plant, only months after the first cars had hit the market in Germany last October. Nanjing is the second plant in the world to build the car. In China, the Fiesta will go on sale late in the first quarter. The Fiesta was shown at the North American International Auto Show in 2007 under the name, “The Verve,” but Americans will have to wait until 2010 before they can buy it domestically. In Europe, they can’t make enough of the little guy.
Ford has sold more than 61,000 Fiestas in its 19 European markets during its two months in showrooms. It is the auto maker’s second-best selling vehicle behind the Ford Focus.
Ford has been touting the Fiesta as its first “global car” since a version of the vehicle – with very little changes – will be available in almost every car market where Ford has a presence, the Nikkei (sub) writes.
China can even be proud of a Fiesta first: The Nanjing plant will be the first facility to build the four-door sedan version of the Fiesta. Fiesta production will begin later this month at Ford’s plant in Valencia, Spain. In 2010, Ford and Mazda’s joint-venture facility, Auto Alliance Thailand, in Rayong will begin producing the Fiesta for other major Asian markets. At that time, Ford’s plant in Cuautitlan, Mexico, will build the Fiesta for the U.S. and other North American markets.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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This is a highly interesting phenomenon, already observed some time ago when Ford started selling the S-Max in China. What does this say about the American market? One might conclude that Americans simply don't want the best products they can get. But I think that's wrong. I would say American automotive particularism is a product of the unique regulatory landscape: low fuel taxes and SUV-oriented passive safety requirements. So people tend to prefer heavy, low-cost, fuelish vehicles. Which leads to a question: why does Ford think it will be able to make money in the U.S. in 2010 with Euro-Fords?
The list of great cars that are not available in the USDM is getting really really long. I'm at a loss to think of what we get that the rest of the world doesn't (that I wouldn't easily give up). Is the Mustang NA only? That's a keeper. After that, I draw blanks.