Ford Motor (NYSE:F) is positioned to navigate rising oil and gasoline prices with the launch of new compact, fuel efficient cars likely to gain market share, a top executive said on Thursday.
Cars built on a compact car platform, such as Ford's new global Focus model, will take a larger share of the U.S. auto market in 2011 as gasoline prices continue to rise, said Jim Farley, head of Ford sales and marketing.
In Europe, almost a third of auto sales are in this segment, "so we still have a long way to go to grow," Farley told reporters outside an industry meeting in New York.
In the summer of 2008, when U.S. average gasoline prices rose above $4 a gallon, small-car sales rose to about a quarter of the U.S. market.
For the full year 2008 and in 2010, the compact car share of the U.S. market was under 20 percent. In 2009 it was 21 percent.
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