Ford Motor Company Volvo Sells To China

Ford Motor Company conducts negotiations for Volvo with Geely. Ford Motor Company plans to sell Volvo in an effort to raise money.

By: Rob Adams
Published: Oct 28, 2009
Updated: Feb 8, 2010

Articles - Ford Talks Resume With Geely Motor Company

Last week, reports suggested that talks between Ford and Geely Automobile Holdings acquire Volvo had stalled. There were some disagreements on intellectual property. However, there are indications that the talks have resumed.

Ford has not made any official announcement regarding the talks with Geely Automobile Holdings. However, inside sources familiar with the matter say that negotiations originally started in London last week. Ford Chief Financial Officer, Lewis Booth, was part of that discussion.

"Volvo is completely integrated into Ford%u2019s product development strategy," Michael Robinet, a CSM Worldwide analyst, said in a statement. "This is akin to selling a room on your house. You can%u2019t separate it easily."

Geely Automobile Holdings is based out of China. The company entered the auto industry in 1997 and is one of the top 500 Chinese enterprises. Geely has an annual production capacity of 300,000 vehicles. The manufacturer also builds the engines and transmissions for the automobiles.

When I first learned that Ford was going to sell its Volvo unit, I was quite saddened. Volvo is one of Ford's elite fleet of vehicles that is part of its European brand. Volvo is prestige and has the Donald Sutherland voice to emphasize it.

However, the auto industry is going through a tough time and that's part of the economic reality. Ford is selling off some of its international luxury vehicles to focus more on primary brands. These brands include Ford, Lincoln and Mercury.

Ford is the only domestic automaker to avoid bankruptcy. In addition, the auto manufacturer never took a government bailout. When other domestic automakers were laying off workers, Ford was hiring. The company recently re-opened a factory where new employees are building the new EcoBoost engine.