Ford once had high hopes for the Mustang Mach-E in China, setting up a separate company to run the business. Now, the US carmaker is scaling back its ambitions in the business.
US auto giant Ford has officially announced a restructuring of its Mustang Mach-E operations in China, scaling back its ambitions for the business.
Effective today, Changan Ford has officially taken over the Mustang Mach-E team and its operations in the Chinese market, the Ford joint venture said in a statement, adding that this is due to Ford's strategic transformation and business realignment in China.
The operating entity for Mustang Mach-E's sales, after-sales, service and user operation and maintenance changed from Ford Electric Mach Technologies (FMeT) to Changan Ford from August 1.
Ford had high hopes for the Mustang Mach-E and established FMeT in September 2022, which is the first independent company in the Chinese market established by a foreign automotive brand with a deep focus on the research, development and operation of intelligent EVs.
By utilizing Changan Ford's existing distribution network, Mustang Mach-E's sales and service channels can be rapidly expanded to provide better service to consumers, the statement from Changan Ford said.
The first Mustang Mach-E authorized dealerships number nearly 300, nearly three times the number of previous outlets, and cover 70 key new energy vehicle (NEV) cities in China, according to the statement.
Ford will accelerate its electrification transition in China, and FMeT will focus on EV technology and digital technology development in the future, the statement said.
While announcing the realignment, Changan Ford announced that it will upgrade the cockpit chip to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155, which is currently used in mainstream premium EV models in China, free of charge for all owners of the Mustang Mach-E.
Ford released the Mustang Mach-E in China in April 2021, and the first delivery was on December 26 of the same year.
That model was equipped with the older Qualcomm Snapdragon 820A chip. Last August 26, Ford announced that it would upgrade the cockpit chip to the Snapdragon 8155 free of charge for Mustang Mach-E consumers, whether they've already received deliveries or are purchasing a vehicle in the future.
With the upgrade to the Snapdragon 8155 chip, there will be a 3x increase in CPU computing power and a 5x increase in GPU computing power, Ford said at the time.
Notably, Ford then required owners to refer friends for test drives or sign up as an app member to qualify for the upgrade, which sparked some discontent at the time.
In early June, local media outlet Jiemian cited a number of people familiar with the matter as saying that Ford will make organizational restructuring, and the Mustang Mach-E team will be integrated and returned to Ford China.
The organizational restructuring will involve more than 2,000 employees and is expected to be completed in July, according to the report.
That's because Mustang Mach-E's sales are so poor that it's difficult for the separate company to take on losses for long, a person familiar with the matter said, according to the report.
($1 = RMB 7.1428)
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