Segmentation in Passenger Car Industry- Ford Falcon Getting Fuel Economy - Term Paper Example

Segmentation in passenger car industry- Ford Falcon getting fuel economy Executive Summary Every business and organization applies different strategies in order to gauge and classify their market as the perception of marketing can’t be functional without this practice. It is not possible to price, tailor, distribute and promote a product if the business is not ware as to who is will purchase the product, when, where and how often the consumer will buy the product and the details that they wish to know about it? Ford Australia has manufactured Ford Falcon, a full-size since 1960. Every model since the XA string of 1972 on has been planned, built and developed in Australia, following the phase out of American Falcon of 1960-71 that had been engineered again locally for the harsh Australian conditions. Introduction VFACTS was set up by The Chambers of Automotive Industries set VFACTS after disappointment was shown by the members of the industry with regards to accuracy of data received from their previous sources. Instead of waiting for collection of registration data, VFACTS receives information directly from the car dealers (Retailers). This process is scrutinized by the committee that comprises of industry bodies. Falcon is known as one of the largest selling names in world automotive history. It sold over 3,000,000 cars in six generations to the year 2003, exclusively in New Zealand Australia. As of July 07, Ford sells approximately 3,000 units each month. Ford has produced around three million units since the year 1960, topping the sales charts in Australia many times. Currently Falcon offers station wagon, utility body styles and sedan however in the earlier hardtops (coupes) and panel vans were offered. Australian made Holden Commodores and Ford Falcons ruled the taxi ranks in New Zealand and Australia, and also used as patrolling police cars. The luxury model of Falcon are together known as G Series and marketed as the Ford G6E, G6E Turbo and G6. Ford Landau, Ford Futura and Ford Fairmont, Long base wheel Fairlane and Ford LTD are the other Falcon models that are no produced. Ford will release the first 4 cylinder Falcon along with Territory the first diesel powered car instead of launching Focus in Australia in 2011. These surprised development were declared as the part of $230 million investment as a “sustainability initiatives” that also comprised of the launch of New Direct Liquid Injection the LPG system for Falcon in the coming year in order to meet the stringent New Euro IV emission regulation that was due from mid 2010 The new 3 engines would form the grounds for renewed fuel consumption that is proposed by Ford but there are cancellation plans for the production of Focus the small car a major challenge that was to produce 40,000 automobiles at the Broad meadows yearly and it also included 15000 for export purpose as the it would continue to import from nations like Thailand that have free trade agreement with Australia. The company also said that due to the revolution in global economic conditions it would import part from countries like China and Philippines. Purpose of the report Each sale is segregated in to one of the eight predestined groups which are then used by Chamber of Automotive Industry to make a passenger market report that is divided into subdivisions of small, light, medium, people movers, upper medium, luxury, prestige and sports. The criticality to the usefulness and accuracy of the report depends on the designation of every make and model of vehicles. Vehicle make and model are assigned to their grouping by the conciliation amongst the committee members. Ford Australia has manufactured Ford Falcon, a full-size since 1960. Every model since the XA string of 1972 on has been planned, built and developed in Australia, following the phase out of American Falcon of 1960-71 that had been engineered again locally for the harsh Australian conditions.The purpose of this report is to find the model that is more liked by the public because of its fuel efficiency. Findings The most popular model would now also match Australia’s fuel economy in the most fuel efficient and home grown large sedan, Toyota’s Aurion, and also extends its advantage over Holden’s top-selling Commodore, which in returns 10.6L/ 100km. Ford also notes that Falcon XT that is six-speed auto-equipped also match the fuel consumption of Toyota’s volume selling 2.4L 4 cylinder Camry automatic and only manual adaptation of which return 8.9 liters per 100km. Falcon XT sedan that is fitted with the 6 speed ZF auto is improved by 0.2L/100km, while the official ADR81/02 fuel consumption of the Falcon G6E XR6 and G6, sedan would drop 0.1Liter per 100km i.e. from 10.2 to 10.1L/100km. Likewise, the CO2 emissions of Falcon XT sedan has reduce to 236g/km, whereas the G6E XR6 and G6’s, tailpipe emissions drop to 239g/km. The federal government’s green vehicle guide has given the 3 Ford models an green vehicle official recognition of 5.5 star green house rating because of the reduction in CO2 emanation below 241g/km and that too without any performance loss In order to improvise the capability to respond to the increasing demands of the consumer for better fuel economy, better performance and substitute fuels options, Ford has adopted the new engine strategy as a direct response to the lower producing levels in the vicinity in order to manufacture larger vehicles. Ford is still committed to their existing local automobiles like Territory, Falcon and Falcon Ute whilst spreading their investment requirement across a broad base of automobiles. According to Mr. Gorman, importing new engine from the year 2010 will let them achieve their goals that can help them to meet the needs of their consumer and also help them to make better profit as the goods imported will be at a much lower price than that of which is produced locally, thus saving on various cost and taxes. There has been extensive speculation that Ford Australia plans to export Territory and New Falcon or may be at least move their underpinnings to nations like USA or other foreign market place in order to enhance profitability. Tom Gorman, the president of Ford Australia informed that are presently investigating numerous options that will help them return the capacity of Campbellfield production facility completely. Export seems to the only way to boost the production of Falcon to full capacity and that the local sales may not be likely to do this. The Ford Australia declaration also strongly hinted that Territory and Falcon would get diesel engines. It also mentioned that the enhanced economy scale that resulted from globally sourced V6 engine would offer better flexibility to potential integrated futuristic optional fuel strategies especially diesel technology. In fact closure of the plant at Geelong by 2010 and cutting on 600 employees would not impact the other operations as the other 3000 in Campbellfield workers and 1400 in Geelong would not be directly affected by this decision. Conclusion The key contributors of the enhanced fuel competency on 6 cylinder petrol Falcon sedan models comprise of revised engine calibration, a latest and new generation catalytic converter, for better updated transmission calibration and cold-start performance. Like financial system development are also seen on the SY Territory MkII SUV which enters production lately. Territory engine alterations are the equivalent as the ones made to Falcon, in-addition to enhanced aerodynamic performance from new front-end design of SYII’s and the reduced kerb weights on certain models. There 0.6L per 100km or 5 percent reduction in fuel consumption of the 5 seat RWD Territory variants hence it’s benefited. As mentioned before, the enhanced Territory TX would come standard with cruise control, body colored bumpers, side curtain airbags, door-handles and mirrors and 17-inch alloy wheels. In addition, the mid range TS has a overturn parking camera, a leather-wrapped steering wheel, front fog lights, gearshift and handbrake, and a third-row seat as standard. Besides that, the Ghia variants score an Alpine rear DVD system, side steps, rear privacy glass and 18-inch alloy wheels. Recommendations Ford formally declared a maximum 5-star ANCAP crash safety ranking for E-Gas Falcon sedan once it achieved standard electronic constancy control (DSC in Ford-speak). The E-Gas Falcon sedan connected with the rest of FG- Falcon sedan range to achieve the utmost independent inhabitant protection rating. ESC would be fitted as a standard to E-Gas-powered BFIII Falcon and FG Falcon Ute wagon variants from the month of May. ESC will be standardize on the complete Falcon range from the month of May, except for the base R6 Ute and XL, on which it has a $500 option. Marin Burela president and CEO of Ford Australia said that Ford had sustained engineering refinement and development of the award winning and highly appreciated FG Falcon series ever since it got introduced the previous year. The progress has delivered legitimate fuel economy developments on the volume selling 6-cylinder sedans that are fitted with the six-speed automatic transmission. The Falcon XT top’s the selling chart of medium size car with 4 cylinder auto model car in Australia due to its 6 speed auto that is equivalent to fuel efficiency. Customer can now chose a good family size car that is fuel efficient along with 4 cylinder model beside that it also provides all the traditional advantages of a bigger car package like refinement, interior space, passenger comfort, performance, five star safety, towing ability and luggage capacity. Over the past years the engineering team have increased fuel efficiency enhancement of approximately 14 percent on this particular power train, thus helping in reduction of operational cost to customers and also reducing the effect of CO2 emission on the environment. Nevertheless, these improvements in no ways have compromised with the overall performance of the car. Ford Australia will release the first 4 cylinder Falcon and the 1st diesel powered car Territory by 2011 instead of the production of Ford Focus the next generation car. Both these development came as a surprise and were declared as a part of $230 million investment plan in sustainability initiatives that also comprises of the release of new LPG system (direct liquid injection) for the production of Falcon for next year in order to sustain the requirements of the latest Euro IV emission regulations that was to be launched in mid 2010. The 3 latest engines would form the base of a totally new fuel consumption proposed by Ford Australia but the termination of the plans to manufacture Ford Focus petite car presents a major change in opinion that was to produce 40000 automobiles at Broad Meadows yearly and also includes 15000 exports. Ford has credited a no nonsense marketing strategy for certain sales profits where Falcon scored 32.3 percent of the big car segment and the best performance car since Sept last year. The president of Ford Australia has said that he is quiet confident that Falcon was building in less than a year in spite of the absence market of fleet buyer who were buying small or medium cars. He also mentioned that the car is making its presence felt but may take time to stand out. The share for Falcon improved in the year 2008 from 25.5 to 27.8 percent of the smaller large car section. Ford Australia is very confident that the new EcoBoost range of 4 cylinders will attract and secure the future of Falcon as many government and business have shut doors on 6 cylinders. The company has announced that the first 4 cylinder Falcon is to be released on March 2011 and this will give consumer fuel economy benefits anywhere between 15 to 20 percent. It has also informed that plans to introduce LPG E-Gas Flacon a lean liquid injection is due in July 2010 and 6 cylinder diesel engines SUV Territory in 2011. Overall the future of Ford Falcon looks to be bright due to the invention of the latest technology and consumer demand. (Marton Pettendy) Works Cited Marton Pettendy. “Ford Falcon and Territory get fuel economy and safety improvements." 02 April 2009, Read More