Ford to increase production of Focus

The new Focus – which delivers 35 miles per gallon and industry-first technology such as Ford SYNC™ – has been a hot seller since it began rolling off the assembly line at Ford’s Wayne Stamping and Assembly Plant in late 2007.

In the first three months of 2008, Ford sold 49,070 Focus units – an increase of 23 percent from the same time period last year. Importantly, retail sales were up 35 percent, while fleet sales declined slightly. The Focus now claims 7.6 percent of the U.S. small car market, 1.2 percentage points better than a year ago.

Based on the strong demand, Ford is increasing production in order to build a total of 245,000 Focus units in 2008, up from 191,000 in 2007. The production plan means Wayne Stamping and Assembly’s 2,800 employees will work some overtime and Saturday shifts for the rest of the year to meet demand.

The 2008 model of the fun-to-drive Focus launched in October 2007 with industry-exclusive technology such as Ford SYNC™, the hands-free voice-activated in-car communications and entertainment technology that integrates Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones and digital music players. SYNC-equipped Focus accounted for 40 percent of the sales.

The new Focus also launched with improved quality – with 13 percent fewer Things Gone Wrong (TGW) over last year. This is according to the 2008 Q1 Global Quality Research System (GQRS) study conducted for Ford by RDA Group of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

Credits: Jarvis