As Ford CEO Alan Mulally prepares to retire on July 1, he looks forward to the rise of the automobile company as a global brand.
"Mark has served all around the world," Mulally told CNBC of his successor, Mark Fields. "He is going to take Ford flying.
Citing growth in continents around the world, Mulally emphasized that the automaker is the fastest growing brand in Asia Pacific, particularly China. With May sales up 32 percent in China, Ford is opening "three new plants to support that growth," he said on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" Friday morning.
Even as critics have pointed to China's surging automobile use as a contributor to increased pollution, Mulally said that "in Ford's case, we're part of the solution. So everything the government is trying to do to manage that, we are part of the solutions in the cities and the rural areas as they migrate into the city."
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—By Evelyn Cheng, Special to CNBC