Ford of Europe
"Go Further"
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| AG | |
| Industry | Automotive |
| Founded | 1967 Ireland |
| Headquarters | Cologne, Germany |
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Number of locations
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10 manufacturing facilities in seven countries |
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Area served
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Europe |
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Key people
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Jim Farley (Chairman and chief executive officer) |
| Products | Automobiles |
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Number of employees
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69,400 (2009) |
| Parent | Ford Motor Company |
| Divisions | Ford Team RS |
| Subsidiaries | |
| Website |
www.ford.eu www.fordmedia.eu |
Ford of Europe AG is a subsidiary company of Ford Motor Company founded in 1967 with headquarters in Cologne, Germany.
Ford of Europe was founded in 1967 on the merger of the British and German divisions of the Ford Motor Company. The front-engined Ford Transit range of panel vans launched in 1965, was the first formal co-operation between the two entities, simultaneously developed to replace the German Ford Taunus Transit and the British Ford Thames 400E. Prior to this, the two companies avoided marketing their vehicles in one another's domestic markets, and in much of the rest of western Europe were direct competitors, with totally separate product lines, despite being owned by the same American parent, in a similar manner to General Motors’ Opel and Vauxhall subsidiaries at the same time - indeed GM followed Ford's precedent in the 1970s by merging the operations of Opel and Vauxhall into General Motors Europe.
The first new model launched after the creation of Ford of Europe was the Escort built in England from October 1967, and launched to market later that year. The Escort was a rear-wheel drive small family saloon that took the place of the British Anglia range and was built in both Britain and, from 1970, Germany. It was first available as a two-door saloon and later in estate, van and four-door saloon bodystyles. Power came from 950 cc, 1100 cc and 1300 cc petrol engines. Later there was also a 2000 cc unit which came in the RS2000 performance version and was capable of 110 mph (180 km/h). It quickly became popular with buyers, outselling in the UK key competitors from BMC (later British Leyland), Vauxhall (Opel in Germany) and the Rootes Group. The Escort would never achieve such dominance in Europe's largest auto market, but nevertheless took significant market share from the Opel and Volkswagen competitors of the time.
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Wikipedia