SHANGHAI — At November’s Guangzhou auto present, one of the vital vital exhibits in China, Ford Motor Co. put its freshened Focus sedan and hatchback on the heart of its stage.

Chen Xiaobo, govt vp of Ford China’s Nationwide Gross sales and Service Division, instructed the media on the present that, with its newly restyled inside and the addition of a wagon model, the Focus would “significantly fulfill” the wants of younger Chinese language customers.

However China’s sellers and analysts aren’t so certain about that.

“Time has modified,” mentioned an govt at a Shanghai-based supplier group who requested to not be recognized due to his group’s shut ties with Ford’s China unit. “For all these efforts, it might be laborious for Ford to revive the previous glory for the Focus.”

In actuality, the Ford Focus has been encountering the identical client headwinds in China that it did within the U.S. market. Within the U.S., Ford has largely deserted sedans for it product portfolio. It shifted Focus manufacturing to China in 2018 as a result of it was proving refreshingly well-liked amongst Chinese language customers. However even there, attitudes are altering.

Ford launched the compact sedan in China in 2005, adopted by a hatchback variation the subsequent 12 months — the primary world model to supply a hatchback there.

With the automotive’s design and Ford’s status as a global model, Focus gross sales rose steadily in China. From 2012 to 2014, it grew to become the market’s top-selling sedan. That enthusiasm helped transfer Ford to determine that China, not North America, was the candy spot for the Focus.

However after its excessive of 392,000 gross sales in 2014, Focus gross sales went into decline. Final 12 months, as China’s automakers labored by the pandemic, the Focus mustered solely 35,000 gross sales, in accordance with China Passenger Automobile Alliance, the information unit of the China Car Sellers Affiliation.

Based on the supplier group govt who runs Ford shops within the Shanghai space, the mannequin is falling sufferer to fast-rising competitors.

“Not like 10 years in the past, the Focus now has too many rivals available in the market,” he mentioned.

The competitors comes not solely from the compact automobiles of different world manufacturers — together with Volkswagen, Buick, Toyota and Nissan — but additionally from comparable fashions of main Chinese language marques similar to Geely and Roewe, which have improved product high quality through the years, he added.

Ford additionally might have been out of step with its rivals on advertising final 12 months.

To stimulate gross sales demand within the wake of the coronavirus disruption, most world mass-market manufacturers slashed costs on their compact sedans. Ford didn’t. The Focus value vary remained unchanged on the equal of about $16,900 to $24,400.

“At such a value vary, the Focus lacks competitiveness in its phase,” the chief mentioned.

Ford additionally faces a hurdle in stoking demand for the automotive’s three-cylinder gasoline engines, mentioned John Zeng, Asia director of LMC Automotive.

In its present kind, the Focus makes use of the engine expertise it adopted in late 2018, a 1.5-liter naturally aspirated or turbocharged three- cylinder engine. The upper- priced wagon variant has a 1.5-liter turbocharged engine.

Some Chinese language customers expressed their disappointment on well-liked native auto web sites similar to Yiche and Autohome after the three variations of the Focus went on sale in November.

However the unfavorable view of three-cylinder engines just isn’t distinctive to the Focus.

Grumbling emerged in 2018 when Normal Motors took the lead amongst world automakers in putting in three-cylinder engines in a big selection of its compact merchandise. That shortly created client backlash.

“Customers usually complained that the engines created an excessive amount of vibration and noises,” Zeng mentioned.

GM defended the reliability of its three-cylinder engines. However tumbling gross sales of associated fashions prompted it so as to add four-cylinder engine variants in 2020 for among the fashions, such because the Buick Excelle and the Chevrolet Cruze.

Regardless of a 32 p.c gross sales rebound of crossovers and SUVs, Ford model’s China deliveries dipped 1.2 p.c from a 12 months earlier to roughly 324,000 in 2020, in accordance with Ford Motor Co.’s China unit.

However Jimmy Tsung, COO of Lio Ho Car Group China, a Taiwan-based firm that operates greater than 10 Ford franchises in mainland China, believes the Ford model nonetheless wants the Focus, in addition to the smaller Escort, a nameplate Ford resurrected in China in 2014.

“Ford should promote Focus and Escort effectively within the Chinese language market to have an opportunity to realize a bigger market share,” Tsung mentioned.

However Ford has a protracted technique to go to revive the 2 sedans as quantity mills. Knowledge from the China Passenger Automobile Alliance present Escort gross sales in China additionally thinned to a trickle final 12 months, to about 33,100.

Tsung believes the automaker is shifting in the fitting path to spice up Focus gross sales.

Whereas leaving the mannequin’s exterior little modified within the freshen, Ford upgraded the interiors to enchantment to younger clients. It now comes with an 8-inch full LCD digital instrument panel, matched with a 12.3-inch shade contact display. It additionally is provided with Ford’s SYNC+ infotainment system that integrates synthetic intelligence expertise of Chinese language Web big Baidu.

Including the wagon model will assist the Focus meet customers’ various wants, Tsung mentioned. To win customers over to the three-cylinder engine, Ford is now providing a lifetime free guarantee on the engine.

Tsung and others consider there may be nonetheless life within the Chinese language sedan.