Ford vehicle sales in the entire ASEAN region continued its steady rise with a record high 100,824 units sold across the region, an increase of more than five percent from the previous year. Driving this robust growth are record annual sales in the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Myanmar along with market share gains in Thailand.
The key model sustaining the impressive numbers across the region is none other than the Thai-built Ford Ranger, which accounts for nearly half of all Ford vehicles sold in the region. Despite the impending arrival of a facelifted version, the existing model charted a remarkable 10 percent increase from 2013’s total to 50,190 units in 2014.
Response to the newly-launched EcoSport has been encouraging as well, with the compact SUV usurping the Fiesta‘s position as the company’s second best-seller in the region with some 18,149 units finding homes.
Amongst the countries, Thailand continues to lead the way in terms of numbers sold with 38,087 units. Ford finished the year strong in Thailand with three consecutive months of increasing sales, including December retail sales that rose nearly 20 percent to 3,471 units. The Philippines was Ford’s second biggest market in ASEAN, recording a second consecutive year of increased sales with 20,341 units – a whopping 53 percent jump from 2013.
With 13,938 units sold, Malaysia becomes Ford’s fourth biggest market in the region, a mere 50 units behind third-placed Vietnam. Reflecting the situation across the region, Malaysia’s numbers represent a second consecutive year of record sales, bettering 2013’s tally by 31 percent. The year ended on a high note for the company with a 52 percent year-on-year sales increase to 1,432 units, simultaneously making it Ford’s best ever quarter in the country with 3,721 sales.
Like in other ASEAN markets, Ford sales in Malaysia is similarly dominated by the Ranger, which became the country’s second-best selling pick-up with 8,577 units – 49 percent increase from 2013. Next key sales contributor is the Fiesta, which enjoyed a 24 percent sales increase to chalk a final tally of 3,119 units. The EcoSport, with only half a year of sales in the market, had to make do 353 units. The Focus and Kuga round off the numbers with 939 and 882 units respectively.
In 2014, Ford also boosted its presence in Malaysia’s commercial vehicle segment by kick-starting local assembly of the Transit van, as well as the official launch of a network of nine Commercial Vehicle (CV) Centres that cater to the unique sales and aftersales needs of commercial customers.
For 2015, Ford is set to further strengthen its product line-up with confirmed launches of a newly-facelifted Ranger and its sister SUV, the all-new Everest, both to be made available across the region. The Malaysian market can further expect to welcome the all-new Mondeo followed by the new Mustang. We are also keeping tabs on the possibility of a Focus facelift as well as an all-new S-Max MPV.
Keyword: Ford rakes in record sales across ASEAN in 2014