The US automaker will shut down all of its operations in Japan and Indonesia in this year due to decreasing sales.
Ford will pull out from the Japanese and Indonesian markets as they see “no reasonable path to profitability”, according to an email sent from Dave Schoch, Ford’s Asia Pasific President to all employees and viewed by Reuters.
This means that the company will stop sales and imports of all Ford and Lincoln models while any product development carried out in Japan will be shifted elsewhere.
Ford has 52 dealerships in Japan and last year sold around 5,000 units, giving them a share of 1.5% of the imported new car market. In Indonesia, the company has 44 franchised dealerships and last year it shifted around 6,000 units, the equivalent of 0.6% of the market.
“In Indonesia, without local manufacturing … there’s just really no way that automakers can compete in that market, and we do not have local manufacturing,” said a Ford spokesman in Shanghai.
With this move Ford follows the same path as GM, which last year stopped making GM-branded models for the Indonesian market amid the intense competition from Japanese brands, causing the loss of 500 jobs.
Ford was selling the Kuga, Mondeo and Explorer models in Japan and Fiesta, Focus, Ranger, Ecosport, Escape, Everest models in Indonesia.
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