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Ford's design offensive

October 2, 2012

Auto maker Ford has said it will work hard to make its brands easier to identify by potential customers around the globe. The company believes a unified design concept can also help boost sluggish European sales.

https://p.dw.com/p/16IZg
Chinese factory workers assemble Ford cars on the production line at the auto plant of Changan Ford
Image: picture alliance/dpa

US carmaker Ford announced on Tuesday it aimed to boost business in Europe by revising its design philosophy. The company said its cars lacked a unified construction set-up to make them easily identifiable by people from all over the world.

"We intend to lend a new design language and design implementation to our brands worldwide," the head of Ford Germany, Bernhard Matthes, said in Stuttgart. "This will mean that the cars we sell in Asia will have the same design elements as those in European showrooms."

Matthes acknowledged the different looks of specific Ford brands in different regions in the world had often led to confusion among clients.

Painful reforms

The carmaker's design offensive comes amid a protracted slump in its European business. Ford said its European division looked likely to post over $1 billion (775 million euros) in losses throughout the current year.

The company currently employs over 65,000 workers in Europe, the largest proportion of which are in Germany.

The auto maker's new design strategy will come too late to avoid large-scale layoffs on the continent. Ford announced in late September it was planning to cut several hundred positions from its workforce in Europe. Ford said the cuts are part of an ongoing program to achieve greater efficiencies in all areas of its European operations.

hg/hc (AFP, dpa, dapd)