Ford’s April China vehicle sales slump

BEIJING — Ford Motor Co.’s vehicle sales in China fell 26% in April, the company said on Friday, as its business remained under pressure in the world’s biggest auto market partly due to a dearth of fresh products.

Ford’s business continued to falter even as China’s overall auto market kept growing.

Ford officials have said the company’s business in China this year will remain pressured by the shortage of new or significantly redesigned cars models in its product lineup — a situation they indicated should last at least through the end of 2018.

The company’s sales in China fell 26% to 69,503 vehicles in April from a year earlier. That follows an 11% slide in volume in March.

Sales volume during the first four months of the year dropped 21% to 276,642 vehicles, from the same period a year ago, Ford said.

According to the automaker, sales of its premium brand Lincoln fell 14% last month from a year earlier to 3,553 vehicles. However, volume for the first four months was up 4% at 16,263 vehicles.

A Ford spokesman attributed the Lincoln sales slide last month in part to the fact that the MKC, the brand’s best-selling SUV, is nearing the end of its product life cycle.

“The sales performance was also affected by the recent MKZ recall,” he said in an e-mailed response.