From the F earnings call transcript. The last page. An analyst should have asked THIS question.
Lincoln is where the earnings leverage for F exists. It is massive
Operator
We have the next question from the line of Deepa Seetharaman from Reuters. Please go ahead.
Deepa Seetharaman - Thomson ReutersI just have two quick ones. One, Lincoln, I’m just wondering, how satisfied you guys have been with the progress on Lincoln. It’s been about a year since you rebranded it the Lincoln Motor Company. And where do you see that brand on its recovery or its transformation? And second, Alan, I was just piggybacking off of Dee-Ann’s question. What do you think the prospects of you staying beyond 2014 are?
Mark Fields - COOOn Lincoln, as we’ve said in the past, we’re absolutely committed to reinventing Lincoln into a world-class luxury brand with a client experience to match. And as we said when we launched our strategy around Lincoln, that this was going to be a journey not over a matter of months, but over a matter of years.
And we’re off to a good start, after a little bit of a rough production launch of the MKZ. When you look at the quarter, our MKZ sales were up 13%. Five out of the last six months we’ve had record sales months for MKZ. Importantly with that product we’re growing on the coasts. California is a great example, those two regions, L.A. and San Francisco are our fastest-growing regions. And interestingly, about two-thirds of those MKZ sales are hybrids.
So we’re on our way. We’ve said this will be based on product, and we have four products coming in the next four years, which started with the MKZ. So we’re pleased but not satisfied where are, but we said this was going to be a journey, and we’re off and running on that journey.
Alan Mulally - President and CEO
Our plan has not changed. Thank you. |
