Introduction: From a peak of 1.27 million in 2016 to 467,000 in 2023, global automotive giant Ford's sales in the Chinese market have declined by 63%.

By Zhang Junzhi | Produced by Lishi Business Review

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The Decline of the "Goddess"

A century ago, Ford Motor Company was still an unreachable "goddess" for the Chinese people.

In 1924, Mr. Sun Yat-sen personally wrote a letter inviting Henry Ford to build a factory in China, stating, "You can achieve the same cause in China with a larger scale... In China, you will have the opportunity to express and realize your thoughts and ideals in the form of a new industrial system." Mr. Sun placed a significant portion of his ideal of revitalizing the country through industry on foreign capital and technology, and Ford Motor Company was the one he favored.

However, the dazzling status of Ford Motor Company back then was comparable to Tesla, which is now being invited by various governments to build factories. So, Henry Ford did not respond to Mr. Sun's proposal. This is not difficult to understand, as China in 1924 was in a period of turmoil with warlords and poverty, making it difficult for Ford Motor Company to set up a factory in China.

More than half a century later, in 1978, China's chief architect of reform and opening up, Deng Xiaoping, also extended an olive branch to Ford Motor Company. When he met with Henry Ford II, the chairman of Ford Motor Company, he expressed the hope for Ford to cooperate with Chinese auto companies.

This time, Ford responded quickly and established the "China Affairs Office" in November of the same year to seek joint venture opportunities for producing heavy-duty trucks in China. Ford Motor Company thus became the first foreign auto brand to expand its business in China after the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Then, in 1979, 750 Ford F-series trucks were exported to China, marking the first time American cars were sold in China since the founding of the People's Republic of China. The same year, when Deng Xiaoping visited the United States, he specifically visited the Ford Motor Plant in Atlanta and experienced an electric car accompanied by Henry Ford II.

The Chinese government's emphasis and preference for Ford Motor Company are self-evident, which also allowed Ford to seize policy and market opportunities at the beginning of China's journey towards becoming a major automotive country.

In the following decades, with the rapid rise of China's economy, Ford's presence in the Chinese market continued to deepen. In 1995, Ford formed a strategic partnership with Jiangling, and in 2001, Changan Ford was established... Ford's models like Focus, Mondeo, Lincoln, and Transit could be seen everywhere on the road. By 2016, Ford's sales in China reached a record high of 1.27 million, accounting for nearly one-third of Ford's global sales that year, even surpassing Toyota's sales in China during the same period.

But Ford's highest glory in China ended there. In recent years, Ford's sales in China have been plummeting: 1.19 million in 2017, 750,000 in 2018, and only 560,000 in 2019; with year-on-year growth rates of -6%, -37%, and -25.3% respectively.

From 2020 to 2021, Ford's sales stabilized, rising back to over 600,000, but this momentum did not continue. In 2022, Ford's sales fell