Mulally: Ford Still on the Right Path to Profit

Ford, the only large automaker in the United States that survived without government support, is still on track to return to profitability by 2011, CEO Alan Mulally said in an interview for just-auto.com. However, Mulally said the United States will recover slower than the rest of the automotive industry.

"We are on a very sound financial footing right now," he said. "We have sufficient liquidity and have reduced our cash-burn dramatically. We are doing all the investment that we wanted to in new vehicles to make the finest quality, highest fuel efficiency vehicles and we have also given guidance that we are on our way to profitability in 2011."

Mulally says that Ford is still doing well thanks to a number of measures applied three years ago when the company started the transformation process.

"We have planned for that based on projections for the economic recovery worldwide," he said. "From a crisis point of view it's not over, but it is so much better looking forward now than it was a year ago. We moved aggressively and decisively to position Ford for a profitable and growing future and it is happening now."

Ford expects to increase its sales in the domestic market and even overtake General Motors and challenge Toyota. The company predicts a slow recovery in the United States in the next 18 months, with General Motors and Chrysler losing ground in the domestic market. Basically, this is going to happen because of the discontinuation or sale of important brands, including Pontiac, Saturn, Saab or Hummer.