Mr Mulally, who joined Ford from Boeing more than three years ago, said the
carmaker had increased market share in 14 of the past 15 months in the US,
selling more cars than General Motors and Toyota for the first time since
1998.

Japanese products
“We’re continuing to pick up more and more new Ford customers from our
competition,” Mr Mulally said in an interview with the Financial Times in
New Delhi, when asked about the Toyota recall. “We’re getting a lot of
customers that before had selected Japanese products.”

Mr Mulally said it was too early to quantify the impact of the Toyota’s recall
of more than 8m cars in relation to faulty accelerator pedals, jamming
floormats and braking problems. But he added that last year 30 per cent of
Ford’s new customers had migrated over from Japanese cars.

Ford sold 43 per cent more vehicles year-on-year in the US in February, or
142,285 units, pushing it up to the number one position. Some analysts
predict Ford could this year maintain a lead on Toyota and GM, which has
been restructuring following its government-backed bankruptcy last year.

Under Mr Mulally, Ford has been overhauling its strategy and operations. It
has downsized production in the US to fit with the market, sold subsidiaries
such as UK-based marques Jaguar and Land Rover, and broadened its product
range.

Fragile recovery
Mr Mulally said the company was maintaining its conservative forecast for US
car industry this year of sales of 11.5m-12.5m units, well short of past
cyclical peaks of up to 17.5m, due to the “fragile” recovery in the US
economy.

The Ford boss said he saw little impact from the end of the US “cash for
clunkers” scheme as it had been relatively short. Of more concern had been
the end of the longer lasting European version of the scheme but Mr Mulally
said recent sales had been encouraging.

The company is renewing its focus on global markets amid expectations that one
third of sales will come from the US, Europe and Asia each over the next
five years.

With the market rapidly expanding in China, where Ford is building its fourth
plant, the Asian share could even exceed this proportion, he said.

Ford last week also began selling the Figo, the new Indian small car. Ford
plans to export the Figo to South Africa and other markets from its plant in
the southern city of Chennai.

“We’re sized correctly for the American and the European markets. We are
accelerating the introduction of products in the Asia-Pacific and increasing
production there as fast as we can, as fast as is prudent,” Mr Mulally said.

The US market will remain challenging, however, with by his estimate, 10-15
per cent overcapacity. He cautioned that the industry should remain
“disciplined” on buyers’ incentives.

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