The Ford Motor Company [NYSE:F] has taken a page out of the Volkswagen playbook by making public its aggressive new growth targets, which will see the Blue Oval contend not only with VW but also General Motors Company [NYSE:GM] and Toyota for top automaker status. Under its new ‘Vision 2020’ strategy announced overnight, Ford hopes to boost its worldwide sales by between 45 and 55 percent by the end of the decade, which would see it selling around 9.4 million vehicles annually. Last year, Toyota managed to sell 9.98 million vehicles versus the 9.71 million of GM and 9.7 million of VW.
To achieve its lofty goals, Ford will continue with its ‘One Ford’ strategy of selling common vehicles in all markets and continue to expand operations in emerging markets, especially China. Ford will also increase the number of vehicles it has in its lineup, including that of Lincoln which has been confirmed to receive two all-new models. Importantly, Ford also expects to grow its margins to about 8 percent by 2020 with a long-term target of between 8 percent and 9 percent.
But getting back to Lincoln, Ford executives are aiming to triple the luxury division’s sales to around 300,000 units by 2020, with most of that growth expected to come from China where the brand has just debuted. The reinvention of the brand first started with the arrival of the new MKZ, which has since been joined by the MKC. The new MKX launches next year and will be followed shortly by a replacement for the MKS.
Additionally, Ford plans to add two new entries to the Lincoln lineup by 2020, offering customers a wider range of luxury offerings. It’s not clear what these two new entries will be. One possibility is simply a replacement for the Navigator, although if Ford is talking two completely new entries we could see a new compact sedan join the lineup and possibly the oft-rumored Mustang-based model. Around $2.5 billion will be spent to fund the development of these new models.
Ford certainly has the cash on hand. The automaker expects its pre-tax profit for 2014 to come in at about $6 billion and this figure to grow to between $8.5 billion and $9.5 billion for 2015.
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