New Transit Connect
Wagon for Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) is headed to showrooms in the US late
next year. However the family vehicle would not be made in North America.
The automaker will be manufacturing
its family vehicle at Valencia, a hub for its Transit Connect Wagons. This will
aid in solving two of the biggest conundrums of the company – glut capacity in
struggling Europe and lack of manufacturing capacity in North America.
An automotive
forecaster from LMC Automotive, Joe Langley said that there’s not much space
although the company tries to squeeze it in if they had to. The volume does not
guarantee retooling in North America, particularly with the constraints in
terms of capacity.
In North America, Ford
is currently operating at a capacity of 114%, as per Jim Tetreault, vice
president of North American manufacturing unit. However, in Europe, capacity is
nearly 50% of maximum output, as discovered by analysts. Ford has tried hard to
match European production so as to meet the rising demands.
Ford already is
planning to slash 18% of its capacity in Europe by the end of the year 2014
through the closure of three plants. It will also narrow the capacity gap of
about 4,00,000 units, that runs more than 100%.
Langley said that LMC
expects quantity of the Transit Connect Wagon, which will be a 5 or a 7 seat
automobile hitting sometime during late 2013, will start selling at 40,000
units.
The Dearborn automaker
did not mention anything about volume projections at a briefing that took place
on Tuesday. It said that the wagon will come with two options for powertrain
that would include 1.6 liter EcoBoost engine, features like panoramic roof and
three trim levels.
The wagon is slated to
debut in Europe next year as the Tourneo Connect. The automaker does not import
any other type of passenger vehicles to the US from outside of North America.
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