Ford Motor Co. plans to refresh up to 90 percent of its vehicle lineups in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Africa by 2012 to help it increase sales, reports reaching said Friday.
Ford Chief Financial Officer Lewis Booth told reporters in Traverse City in Michigan that Ford is taking the actions necessary not only to strengthen Ford's business but also to deliver world-class levels of product freshness globally.
Booth said the automaker is on pace to reduce its structural costs by 14 billion U.S. dollars to 15 billion dollars compared with 2005. Ford has lowered new vehicle engineering costs by 60 percent and reduced new facility and tooling costs by 40 percent, he said.
Booth also said Ford expects to build 680,000 vehicles per core global platform within five years, up from 345,000 today.
By 2012, 78 percent of Ford's global volume will be on core platforms, up from 29 percent in 2007, he said.
(Xinhua News Agency August 8, 2009)
