Ford Motor continues global business restructuring - the concern announced the closure of all its factories in Brazil. Among other things, the Troller T4 small-scale SUV, the most exotic product in the Ford range, will also fall victim.
According to Bloomberg, the Kamasari car plant (produces the Ford Ka subcompact car and the EcoSport crossover) and the engine shop in Taubat will be closed in January. The small-scale Troller is produced at a separate site in the city of Horizonte, it is planned to stop at the end of 2021. For a while, Ford expects to produce spare parts in Brazil. The closure of three factories will entail layoffs of 5,000 people.
Ford says it was trying to save businesses in Brazil through cuts. At the beginning of 2019, the concern sealed its oldest local car plant - it was assumed that this measure would save the rest of the production. However, the coronavirus pandemic knocked out the Brazilian economy, the car market collapsed, business losses grew, so Ford decided to retire from this country. Only the local headquarters will be saved (to ensure the sale of imported models), the car development center and the test site (they will still be useful).
In 2020, sales of new passenger cars in Brazil fell by 26% compared to 2019 (this is one of the world's anti-records). Ford sold about 120,000 vehicles there last year, almost 40% less than a year earlier. In terms of the number of victims of COVID-19, the state ranks second after the United States - 203 thousand Brazilians have already died from the second wave. The population of this Latin American country is 209 million people.
The closure of factories in Brazil will cost Ford $4.1 billion.
At the very end of 2020, due to the crisis, Ford refused to create a joint venture with the Indian Mahindra. Rumor has it that he may later leave India.
In Latin America, Ford will retain production in Argentina and Uruguay.
Ford's global goal is to achieve a profit margin of at least 8%.
Troller T4 is a frame SUV with a frame-panel body structure. The power "cage" is welded from pipes of rectangular and round cross-section, the outer panels are molded from composites. By design, the car is made in a classic way, proportions and individual exterior styling solutions, it echoes the Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40 of the 1960s and the Jeep Wrangler. The Troller uses a frame chassis and units from the Ford Ranger T6 pickup truck. T4 is the only Troller product that has been around since 1995. Throughout its history, it has specialized in small-scale production of SUVs of the original design on purchased Ford units. Until 2007, Troller was a private company, then it was taken over by Ford Motor. The T4 has been in production since 2014 and is powered by a 3.2-liter Ford Duratorq turbodiesel. About 1000 of these machines are produced annually, they are sold in Brazil at a price of 173,200 local reais.
Ford to retire its most exotic product, the Troller SUV
