OTTAWA - In the tug of war between car and truck sales, Ford Canada chief executive David Mondragon is betting on cars.
The head of the U.S. automaker's Canadian operations said Ford's car business is up 20 per cent for the year, about the same rate as its truck sales.
"We feel good about our growth, but again we're not growing just with trucks," Mondragon said in an interview.
"We're growing with a balanced approach with cars, CUVs and trucks, and that speaks volumes in terms of our growth potential in the future."
The push for cars includes a new version of Ford's popular Explorer that will be based on a car platform.
"It will be state of the art technology, it will also get 30 per cent better fuel economy than the old Explorer," he said.
Ford car sales to the end of November totalled 57,197, while truck sales were 191,300. That compared with 47,718 cars sold in the first 11 months of 2009 and 159,568 trucks.
The increase in Ford car sales has come as the broader industry has seen car sales dip in Canada compared with 2009. Car sales for the first 11 months of the year are down nearly five per cent compared with a year ago.
Light truck sales for Canada are up about 20 per cent through the end of November.
U.S. automakers have done well with drivers' love of the SUV and pickup trucks, which typically carry bigger margins than cars.
"It doesn't mean that we can't make money on cars and we are making money on small cars again and the reason why is we are leveraging global production and we're getting greater economies of scale," Mondragon said.
A report by the Conference Board of Canada on Tuesday said a restructuring of the auto industry during the economic downturn was paying off with a return to profitability.
"The market outlook for Canadian motor vehicle assemblers remains bright thanks to growing U.S. and Canadian demand," the think-tank said.
"Canadian consumers were not hit as hard by the recession, suffering only a relatively modest decline in employment followed by a rapid recovery."
Mondragon predicted auto sales in Canada will grow about two per cent in 2011 after a strong 2010.
"It will be somewhat moderate compared with the growth we experienced this year," said Mondragon, who said overall sales will still likely be a little short of where they were before the 2008 financial crisis.
In the U.S., General Motors and Chrysler both filed for bankruptcy and shed billions in debt and costs with the help of billions from the U.S., Ontario and Canadian governments.
GM recently returned to life as a public company in North America's largest initial public offering.
Ford avoided the need for government cash and bankruptcy, but it too undertook a major restructuring of its operations.
Ford Canada has assembly plants in Oakville and St. Thomas, Ont., two engine plants in Windsor, Ont., and parts distribution centres in Brampton, Ont., and Edmonton.
