Boston, MA 01/16/2013 (wallstreetpr) –Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) and its U.S. rival General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) are looking to the future with a lot of optimism. The two leading automakers in North America have announced new vehicle launches, refresh and plant expansions to gain market share both domestically and in the international scale.
Ford is planning to launch 23 new vehicles this year of which 16 will be sold in the U.S. On the other hand, GM is planning to introduce 15 new vehicles this year. Looking at these new vehicle figures, we see that GM will be launching fewer vehicles this year than it did last year when it launched 18 new vehicles. In comparison, Ford will be introducing nearly double the number of vehicles it launched last year.
These new vehicle launches and timely refreshing of vehicles are expected to help the two companies to boost their sales and revenue growth going forward.
International market
Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) is trailing GM in key global markets such as China. Last year General Motors topped 3 million vehicle deliveries in China, thus ending the year in second position behind Toyota Motors (TM). GM has more than 14 percent of the China’s auto market share. Ford on its part is trailing and is hoping to boost its market share to 6 percent over the next 24 months.
It is in quest to boost position in emerging markets that Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) is putting its money this year in launching more vehicles than rival.
The two companies are taking steps to increase production in China by installing more production plants in the region. General Motors believes that it will be able to produce up to 5 million vehicles annually in China with additional plants. Ford on the other hand is having about six production plants under construction of which two are expected to start operations this year and another two in 2015.
Investor takeaway
As Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) and GM up their vehicle production this year, the stocks will experience depressed margins and earnings as they will spend a lot of money in the projects. Ford will be particularly most affected since it will launch more vehicles this year. However, afterwards, the project will be very rewarding since they will gain big market share in emerging markets.
