RPO83

BRENTWOOD, 13 August 2002 – Ford Motor Company Limited has today released its annual results for the full year 2001.

The overall loss on ordinary activities after taxation was £129 million, compared with a loss of £636 million in 2000. (The loss incurred in 2000 largely reflected significant one-off actions taken during the year to restructure the company with the objective of returning Ford's UK operations to long-term profitability.) Turnover increased to £6,737 million in 2001 from £5,694 million in 2000.

Commenting on the results, Roger Putnam, chairman of Ford Motor Company Limited, said:" Our financial performance in 2001 was an improvement for Ford compared with the previous year, and we are on-track to achieve our objective of returning to profitability in the UK at the earliest opportunity. The UK is a very important market to Ford, being second only to the United States in terms of the number of vehicles sold. It is therefore important for our global business success that we are profitable in the UK.

"Our return to profitability is product-led and our great vehicle range is being additionally strengthened in 2002 with the arrival of the all-new Ford Fiesta, the Ford Fusion and the Ford Transit Connect."

In 2001, Ford investment in research and development in the UK amounted to a total of £482 million, up from £414 million the previous year – an example of the company's commitment to developing a continuous stream of customer-focused, innovative and affordable vehicles.

Last year Ford retained its new car sales market leadership for the 25th successive year, led the new light commercial vehicle market for the 23rd year and was top-selling brand in the medium commercial vehicle market for the 36th consecutive year.

In a record year for new car sales of 2,458,769, Ford sold 404,344 new cars – a volume increase of eight percent compared with the previous year. However, total new car market share was down from 16.8 percent in 2000 to 16.4 percent in 2001, reflecting the continuing competitiveness of the UK new car market. Ford new commercial vehicle sales were 80,650 in 2001.

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*Retired.