Ford Market News

[kscarbel2]

Ford's 2020 Explorer breaks cover as pursuit vehicle

Automotive News  /  August 22, 2018

The best look yet at the redesigned 2020 Ford Explorer crossover, one of the top-selling U.S. light trucks, emerged Wednesday when a photographer captured images of the next Ford Explorer Police Interceptor Hybrid nearly undisguised on the streets of Dearborn, Mich., home to the company's chief engineering center.

Ford released a teaser image and details of the 2020 Police Interceptor in June with lights glaring in the dark, but little detail could be made of the image.

The redesigned 2020 Explorer will share the same rear-wheel-drive platform, with optional all-wheel drive, as the all-new 2019 Lincoln Aviator. The Aviator was introduced at the New York auto show in April but Ford hasn't indicated when the next-generation Explorer will be unveiled.

Ford declined to comment on the latest Explorer Police Interceptor Hybrid photos but said late Wednesday it will "have more to say on the all-new Explorer for retail customers later."

U.S. sales of the Explorer have dropped 3.6 percent this year to 151,488 but it remains the top-selling large crossover, though the segment has grown 12 percent behind higher demand for the redesigned Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave, the Toyota Highlander and Mazda CX-9, and the all-new Volkswagen Atlas and Subaru Ascent.

Based on the latest photographs, the Explorer Interceptor features a more rakish profile, a plastic mesh-esque grille, sharper headlights and sculpted LED fog lights.

From the side, it appears the Explorer receives a tighter greenhouse, sharper C-pillar and a revised character line that now flows through the door handles. The D-pillar has been reworked with a more aggressive angle. The tailgate, bumper and taillights also appear more angular.

The 2020 Explorer Interceptor will feature additional cargo capacity while passenger volume will remain flat, according to Ford's website.

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[kscarbel2]

Ford aims to spread Mustang's DNA

Michael Martinez, Automotive News  /  August 27, 2018

DETROIT — After 10 million vehicles over 54 years, the Mustang remains one of the most vital nameplates in Ford Motor Co.'s stable.

It's Exhibit A for what the Ford brand wants to stand for: bold, emotional designs that elicit passion among its customers.

The rest of its cars lack that cachet, which is why, after the Fusion sedan disappears from showrooms early next decade, the Mustang effectively will be Ford's last car standing as the brand shifts to a lineup dominated by pickups and utility vehicles.

Now, Ford is trying to re-create that Mustang magic in its crossover and SUV lineup. One vehicle in particular, a yet-to-be-named battery-electric crossover, was heavily inspired by the Mustang; Ford floated the name Mach 1 for it this year, though the production version is likely to get a different moniker.

"It's core to what people see Ford as," Carl Widmann, the Mustang's chief engineer, told Automotive News. "We wanted a vehicle that would draw people to the showroom floor. There's clear evidence that's the case."

The Mustang has been the best-selling sports coupe in the U.S. since its redesign in 2014. Ford began selling the Mustang globally in 2015 and now sells it in more than 140 markets, including China, Germany and Australia.

Despite the Mustang's importance to the company, CEO Jim Hackett reportedly pushed back the seventh-generation program by about a year.

A redesigned Mustang now is expected in 2021. The car rides on an exclusive rear-wheel-drive platform but could move to one of the company's five new modular architectures, presumably the rwd/all-wheel-drive unibody underpinnings it would share with utilities such as the Explorer and Lincoln Aviator. That would give Ford the option of building an awd pony car for better handling in winter and to compete with the awd version of the Dodge Challenger that launched in 2017.

The company also plans the first Mustang hybrid, set to arrive in 2020.

Members of the Mustang team were mum on details about the next-generation car but said the move to a modular architecture won't hurt their design creativity.

"Mustang is still going to be a strong, well proportioned vehicle," the Mustang's chief designer, Darrell Behmer, said. "The modular architectures will still give us flexibility; it's not going to bastardize Mustang."

'A tremendous trick'

Widmann said the move won't fundamentally change the car.

"The general layout of rwd has morphed over time, but it's still the general architecture that it has been," he said. "In the architecture world of a rwd — which you're going to end up with a rwd architecture — I think these pieces of it are pieces that will always work. As you tune it and put a top hat on it, you can get different combinations and can define a lot of the emotion."

The current-generation Mustang resonates so well, Widmann said, because of its styling, diverse powertrains and driveability on or off a racetrack.

The team worked to give the 2015 model a more aggressive look while keeping traditional design elements. The vehicle's footprint was unchanged, but the roof and hood were lowered about 1.2 inches. Visibility also was key, Widmann said, as the team tried to maintain the previous generation's proportions.

"It's critical to always have the ability to keep theme elements but not be stuck in a rut," Widmann said. "It's a balance of not being caught in the past but still moving forward, which is a tremendous trick."

Ford has made incremental improvements since the 2015 redesign, adding a 10-speed automatic transmission and dropping the V-6 engine in 2018. It also has reintroduced special editions, including the Bullitt and California Special, and revived performance variants such as the Shelby GT350 and Cobra Jet.

Although U.S. sales are down 4.8 percent this year to 48,362 through July, the car is outselling its chief rivals: the Challenger and Chevrolet Camaro.

"It's the heart and soul of Ford," Jim Farley, Ford's president of global markets, said at a celebration this month of the 10 millionth Mustang produced. "It's one of the reasons why we're different and it continues to inspire other vehicles in the lineup."

Performance and utility

The Mustang-inspired electric crossover, due in 2020, likely will borrow heavily from the pony car's front-end design and combine the performance of an EV with the utility of an Explorer-like crossover.

Just don't expect it to be called Mach 1, a name Ford used for a Mustang performance option at various times from 1968 through the 2004 model year.

"We put that out there to evaluate it," Farley said of the name. "There are pros and cons. I don't want to handicap it at this point, but we got a very strong reaction from people."

After Ford released a teaser video for the vehicle this year, one YouTube user responded: "If they end up calling an SUV a Mach 1, I will never buy a Ford car or truck as long as I live. Blasphemy!"

Another added: "As a man who owns a 2003 mach 1 5-Speed, I am DISGUSTED. The mach 1 is the most iconic stang and you're disgracing its name with this. Shame."

Regardless of what name Ford picks, people who have helped shape the Mustang are excited by the prospect of expanding its DNA to other vehicles.

"Mustang has a soul. It's a balance of performance and design," Behmer said. "If you can capitalize on the cachet and let that rub off on the rest of the portfolio, it's a good thing."

[Dirtymilkman]

A mustang inspired crossover? It's official, they're losing their minds. 

To me your vehicle portfolio should be like a stock portfolio. You don't wanna put all your money into one particular stock or type of stock. You wanna stay diverse. You need tech stocks, energy stocks and so on. That way when the market goes down on one type of stock hopefully your other type is making money. They can't all be winners all the time. But you can't give up on one because it's performing poorly for a while. Stay diverse and stay current. 

[Maxidyne]

This may be the one thing Ford is doing right... Globally over a billion people live in low to mid population density markets where parking is readily available, traffic congestion is manageable, and fuel costs are moderate. For those markets a scrunched hatchback with a transverse drivetrain are unnecessary.Ford could easily build whole families of sedans, wagons, tall wagons AKA crossovers/SUVs, pickups, and the Mustang off a longitudinal rear/all wheel drive platform with viable volumes approaching a million worldwide.

[kscarbel2]

Ford forms new group to develop more profitable, competitive vehicles

Michael Martinez, Automotive News  /  August 28, 2018

Ford Motor Co. wants to apply its deep understanding of truck customers across its lineup.

The automaker this week formed what it calls an Enterprise Product Line Management group to work with marketing, engineering, mobility and product development teams to overhaul the company's vehicle portfolio. The goal is to better study what customers want and build more profitable, competitive vehicles.

It's an approach Ford has taken with its most popular vehicle: the F-series pickup. The automaker also credits its leadership in commercial vehicles and sports cars to the same obsession with understanding its buyers' specific needs.

"By taking this approach, we can raise the bar across our product lines," Jim Farley, Ford's president of global markets, said in a statement. "Each team will have clear accountability for winning in the marketplace and delivering profitable growth."

Ford's profit margin on its global operations in the second quarter was 2.7 percent, down from 5.1 percent a year earlier. Its North American margin declined to 7.4 percent from 9.5 percent in the second quarter of 2017.

Executives have targeted 8 percent global margins -- 10 percent in North America -- by 2020.

Ford tapped Jim Baumbick as vice president of the new group. Baumbick, who becomes a company officer and reports to Farley, had been executive director of global product planning and strategy.

The formation of the new group comes as Ford prepares a product overhaul. In the coming years, it's cutting virtually all of its traditional car offerings, redesigning many of its crossovers and SUVs and entering new segments such as off-road utilities and midsize trucks. By 2020, Ford plans to have the freshest showroom in the industry with an average vehicle age of 3.3 years.

By 2023, the Ford brand's number of nameplates will rise to 23 from 20 today.

Ford CEO Jim Hackett and other senior executives say the automaker wants to offer products in segments where it knows it can win, and it hopes the new organization can help it get there. It's organizing its products into 10 categories: F series, urban utilities, rugged utilities, family utilities, performance vehicles, commercial vehicles, electric vehicles, compact trucks, luxury vehicles and emerging-market vehicles.

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[Maxidyne]

Ford's plan changes every couple weeks... Clearly they have no real plan.

[Dirtymilkman]

It's almost like they're drowning and reaching up trying to grab anything they can to pull themselves up. 

[Red Horse]

" sigh...."  You guys just don't get it.....you see Hackett was hired because he is a "cerebral thinker".  Per Webster....."cerebral"..."of the brain"... "of appealing to or conceived by the intellect rather than emotions...."

Don't forget he "saved" Steelcase-the office furniture people.  You know, "office furniture"  -That is the stuff that companies abandon around here when they walk away from a commercial lease and the new tenant says.."i don't want that stuff". AND he was the Athletic Director at Michigan.  Not quite as qualified as Mulally but Silicon Valley convinced Bill Ford you don't need a guy who understands engineering/manufacturing-you need a "thinker".

When in doubt hire more staff.  And the train station??? I always said, if you have an empty desk or an office, someone will think of a need they have for manpower and..."we have the space"!

Hmnn-wonder if this guy Baumbick knows that Ford builds trucks beyond F-150?

[kscarbel2]

Ford CEO Jim Hackett talks X's and O's of leadership with Michigan's Jim Harbaugh

Nick Bunkley, Automotive News  /  August 29, 2018

Imagine GM CEO Mary Barra plays on Ohio State's offensive line.

That's basically how Jim Hackett pictures her.

The Ford Motor Co. CEO says he got the idea from his football coach at the University of Michigan, the late Bo Schembechler. Hackett, a backup center on Schembechler's powerhouse teams in the mid-1970s, was a guest on this week's episode of "Attack Each Day," a weekly podcast hosted by Michigan's current coach, Jim Harbaugh, and his father, Jack.

Hackett explained one of Schembechler's motivational strategies: "He would have your position and your name, 'Jim Hackett,' and he'd have the center from Ohio State, and he'd say, 'Are you going to outplay him today?' So I do this thing where I go, 'Is Jim Hackett going to outplay Mary Barra today?' "

He continued: "Is Clare Braun, my chief of staff who's here today, is she better than the people at Chrysler? He made you see that competing was what you had to get yourself ready to do."

Since replacing Mark Fields as CEO in May 2017, Hackett has talked repeatedly of the need to improve Ford's "fitness," so it can "compete and win." It's clear that his football days were a major influence in how he has approached the business world, in 20 years running the Steelcase furniture company and now in his time at Ford. In between, Hackett did a brief stint as Michigan's interim athletic director and hired Jim Harbaugh to resurrect the Wolverines' troubled football program.

Hackett was hailed as a hero in Ann Arbor for nabbing Harbaugh and reversing other unpopular moves by his predecessor, but things haven't quite played out on the field as many fans had hoped. Harbaugh logged a 28-11 record in his first three seasons and has yet to beat Michigan's chief rival, Ohio State.

Meanwhile, just a short distance away, it's tough to argue that Hackett is outplaying Barra, at least on the scoreboard that Wall Street and other outsiders can see. Ford's stock price is down, analysts have been agitated by vague messaging, and Hackett has launched a turnaround effort that's more extensive and costly than many experts had anticipated.

Hackett said Harbaugh's critics are misguided and short-sighted. "If I hear that," Hackett said, "I ask them if they know football."

Hackett's comments left the impression that he, similarly, hasn't been rattled by the mounting questions about his leadership of Ford and intends to keep barreling forward, demanding patience from stockholders and employees.

Hackett said he often listens to sports talk radio while commuting from Ann Arbor to Dearborn and grows agitated by callers criticizing Harbaugh, who opens his fourth season this weekend as a one-point underdog against Notre Dame.

"One of the things I worry about is I'm going to call in one day," Hackett said near the end of his hourlong appearance on the Harbaughs' podcast. (The episode, released Tuesday, was titled "Think Ford First" and also revealed that Hackett gave Harbaugh a Mustang convertible this summer.)

"I can't take some of the mythical -- they don't understand how good we are, how great we have it, so I hold back," Hackett said. "They won't give him enough credit for what he's done since he's here."

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[kscarbel2]

Ford downgraded by Moody's to one level above junk status

Michael Martinez, Automotive News  /  August 29, 2018

DETROIT -- Roughly six years after Ford Motor Co. returned to investment grade and reclaimed its mortgaged Blue Oval, the automaker is once again in danger of plunging into junk bond status.

Moody's Investors Service on Wednesday downgraded Ford to Baa3 from Baa2, a move the credit agency telegraphed earlier this year when it changed its rating outlook on Ford to "negative" from "stable." The agency cited "erosion in the company's global business position and the challenges it will face implementing its Fitness Redesign program."

Ford last month said it would undergo an $11 billion global restructuring effort over the next three to five years.

"The Fitness program is a necessity, but it will take several years for material financial and operating benefits of the program to be realized," Moody's said.

"Success could be challenged by having to address the serious performance problems in multiple business units simultaneously. At the same time, Ford will have to continue investing in the areas critical for the future of the auto industry. These areas include alternative propulsion, autonomous driving, ride sharing and connectivity."

Ford shares fell 0.4 percent to close Wednesday at $9.97 in New York.

Ford, in a statement, said it's delivered "year after year of solid financial results" since the Great Recession.

"The company has a strong balance sheet, which provides financial flexibility," spokesman Brad Carroll said. "We know we can capitalize on our strengths, bolster underperforming products and regions and disposition where we cannot make an appropriate return. We’re confident that as we do, the market will recognize our progress.”

Moody's said the prospect of an upgrade to Ford's rating through 2020 is "very modest," and that it could fall to junk status "absent clear progress in pursuing the Fitness initiatives by early to mid-2019, with evidence that the company is on a strong trajectory for recovery."

Ford is in the midst of reorganizing its business in North America by slashing $25.5 billion worth of engineering and other costs. That includes a product overhaul that involves cutting virtually all of its sedans, redesigning most of its utilities and adding products in new segments like off-road utilities and midsize pickups.

Earlier this week, Ford announced the creation of a new management organization tasked with studying customers to develop more profitable and competitive vehicles.

[Maxidyne]

Could we have our old Ford back, please?

 

[Dirtymilkman]

Yeah....... just like football. Exactly the same as football. 

[Red Horse]

This was posted on the Blue Oval News site.  I can't believe this was actually sent out by the guy at the top.  A collection of worn out buzz words.

Just think..."10 cross functional teams"...Wow-"Paralysis through Analysis" at its finest.  When you don't know your ass from third base time to bring in more study teams.   

From: Jim Hackett
Sent: Monday, August 27, 2018 1:02 PM
To: The Ford Team
Subject: Company Announcement

Today, we are announcing a key organizational change to help us better position our business for the opportunities ahead as we focus in on our Winning Portfolio smart choice for growth and shift to a team-based approach centered on driving a deeper product-line and customer-first focus across the company.

With this, we are announcing that we are creating a new Enterprise Product Line Management organization, led by Jim Baumbick who will report into Jim Farley, as we continue transforming to better meet emerging customer needs, drive top-line growth and maximize returns.

The new EPLM organization establishes 10 cross-functional teams that will manage distinct product lines as end-to-end businesses and leverage Ford’s human-centered design, advanced product marketing and user experience teams to create breakthrough products and customer experiences.

[gicknordon]

I guess I dont really understand the financial markets, but I don't understand how a company that is making healthy profits, can be valued so low and have their bond rating lowered. How tesla is valued higher than Ford and GM doesn't make sense either to me, when Tesla makes a fraction of vehicles compared to either company.

[Dirtymilkman]

They sure are trying to reinvent the wheel. I hope the actual smart guys that climbed ranks can find jobs at other places quickly. 

[Maxidyne]

Ford's biggest successes did not come from "Cross Functional Teams"... The F series began when Ford responded to the demand for a cargo carrying vehicle with a beefed up Model T. The Mustang wasn't popular with test groups, but Ford noticed how sales of the Corvair and their own Falcon took off when they offered upmarket Monza and Futura models with bucket seats. Ford had a hunch that the market was their for a purpose built "sports car" and went with their hunch... The Mustang has been a profitable success for half a century since!

The next F series or Mustang won't come out of any "Cross Functional Team", and if one sneaks in the door they'll make sure it doesn't make it out alive...

[Dirtymilkman]

How will they meet CAFE requirements?

[Maxidyne]

They'll game the system, like everybody else... The 50 odd MPG requirement is just for small cars, larger vehicles have lower requirements based on their size, so CAFE is easy compared to the Euro goal which IIRC is 100 grams CO2/kilometer.

[kscarbel2]

VW exec touts potential of Ford partnership

Christiaan Hetzner, Automotive News  /  September 1, 2018

WOLFSBURG, Germany -- Volkswagen Group expects that a strategic partnership with Ford Motor Co. would not unequally favor the German automaker even though it is nearly twice the size of its U.S. rival, said a key VW executive behind the potential deal.

VW and Ford said in June that they were considering a joint development and production alliance that would include light commercial vehicles and could strengthen the companies' overall competitiveness.

The goal would be to form a "strategic alliance," an upgrade over the industry's more common project-based cooperations.

In his first public comments about the potential tie-up, Thomas Sedran said he was confident a final deal could be reached that would ensure both sides benefit equally.

"When we finalize this alliance, you can be assured it will be balanced. There is no junior, nor senior partner, but rather two companies at eye level that will closely cooperate with one another," he said during an interview at VW's headquarters here.

"There might be specific years where there will be a difference in production volumes, but in the sum total it is very balanced," he said, praising the early results from the teams performing due diligence.

In his former job as VW's head of group strategy, Sedran played a key role in bringing the companies together. On Saturday Sedran took up a new role as CEO of VW's light commercial vehicle division.

In terms of numbers, VW dominates Ford. It delivered 10.7 million vehicles worldwide last year, generating $268 billion in revenue vs. Ford's 6.6 million vehicle sales and $156 billion in revenue. This kind of mismatch has led to conflicts in the past.

A similar strategic partnership that Volkswagen struck a decade ago with Suzuki bitterly collapsed after the Japanese company felt it was being bullied. Suzuki sued successfully to get back the 20 percent stake it had sold VW.

VW's market capitalization is twice that of Ford's. Unlike with Suzuki, however, there are no equity interests or cross-shareholdings envisioned this time.

Light commercial vehicles

Volkswagen believes a deal could generate at least $464 million annually in gross added earnings in the midterm by focusing its initial efforts on the joint development and manufacture of light commercial vehicles such as delivery vans and utility trucks.

"I wouldn't rule out anything [on the car side], but the focus is let's first get the LCV projects running," Sedran said. "We want a concrete project vehicle that has a start of production and a certain volume, and then can talk about other issues."

Ford and VW previously cooperated on large minivans with the Volkswagen Sharan and Ford Galaxy built at the jointly owned AutoEuropa plant near Lisbon, Portugal, starting in 1995. Ford later sold its share to VW and moved the Galaxy onto its global C/D-segment platform that also underpins models such as the S-Max minivan and Mondeo sedan.

"Ford was a logical partner. Other companies are already in alliances, but now the two market leaders in Europe are joining forces," Sedran said, adding that each only controls about 15 percent of the European light commercial vehicle market. That means he sees little risk that antitrust authorities might try to prevent a deal. "The product life cycles are a good match. We will build for them. They will build for us."

Joint pickups?

Sedran declined to reveal the range of planned projects, but several people familiar with the matter told Automotive News Europe that Volkswagen was looking to save development costs on a second-generation Amarok pickup.

First debuting eight years ago, the VW truck that competes with Ford's Ranger is the only one of the group's 300-plus models to use body-on-frame construction common to pickups. The Amarok, built in South America and Europe, is not homologated for sale in the U.S.

When rival Mercedes-Benz became the first premium brand to offer a pickup in November, it saved costs by using the Frontier's body-on-frame architecture supplied by partner Nissan. The X 250 d model even borrows the Japanese automaker's 2.3-liter engine -- only the flagship V-6 model comes with a Mercedes power plant.

VW unveiled the Tanoak concept in March at the New York auto show. While the vehicle earned plaudits, insiders say it is unclear whether truck buyers would consider a unibody truck like the Tanoak when others, except the Honda Ridgeline, are body-on-frame.

While the Amarok is the most obvious project in which VW is interested given its unique characteristics and advanced age, it is not the last.

VW's Crafter cargo van had been a largely badge-engineered Mercedes Sprinter built in a Mercedes factory until the cooperation ended in 2016. Mercedes wanted to redirect the 50,000-unit annual capacity set aside for the Crafter for its own growth.

The volume for the new Crafter, launched last year and developed by Volkswagen, has been modest compared with ambitions, however. Only 31,100 vans were delivered to customers through July worldwide, a fact officials attribute to the complex ramp-up of a model offered in various dimensions, body styles and drivetrain combinations.

Ford is successful with the Transit commercial van and its Tourneo passenger version, achieving global volumes that exceed those of VW's respective Transporter and Multivan, the sixth-generation of the vehicle better known as the Microbus.

"The problem is Volkswagen's other light commercial vehicles are all only a few years old -- the Caddy and Transporter were launched in 2015 and the Crafter only last year," said a source familiar with the talks, doubting these models would be able to contribute materially to VW's midterm synergy target.

Many light commercial vehicle models are in the market for a decade or longer before being replaced, so it could be years before any of the trio is built on a Ford-VW joint architecture.

Although Sedran's predecessor succeeded in lifting VW's light commercial vehicle division's operating margin by 310 basis points to 7.2 percent last year, he is still being benchmarked against Mercedes' 9 percent. Sharing costs with a partner would help protect returns.

"We have to undertake enormous efforts to fulfill our emission targets and we see in the plans that the expenditure per vehicle is increasing considerably," he said.

When Sedran sells a car version of a commercial vehicle, European regulators apply the same stringent fleet emission targets it applies for a Golf compact car even though a Multivan is much larger.

"That was one of the drivers behind the talks with Ford, which has similar challenges," Sedran said.

U.S. plans

One aspect that might help forge ties is Sedran's skepticism about launching any commercial vehicles like the Crafter or Transporter in the U.S., which he does not believe is growing fast enough to support the entry of another player such as Volkswagen.

The first product he thinks could have a realistic chance to compete there would be the full-electric I.D. Buzz van expected in 2022, Sedran declined to comment on whether Ford might gain access to VW's scalable MEB architecture for battery-powered vehicles.

When asked whether he expected a deal between VW and Ford to be signed by year end, Sedran said he was optimistic.

"We realized fairly quickly that it worked from a cultural perspective and there was the right chemistry with the main actors," he said. "At the end of the day both sides need to sign, but I'm confident since it's all been constructive and in a spirit of partnership."

[kscarbel2]

Ford scraps plan to import Focus Active amid U.S.-China trade war

Michael Martinez, Automotive News  /  August 31, 2018

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. on Friday said it is canceling plans to import a wagon version of the Focus to the U.S. from China because tariffs enacted by the Trump administration would cut into profits too much.

The automaker won't reconsider its decision even if the tariffs are eventually dropped, a spokesman said.

Ford had planned to bring the Focus Active to the U.S. in the second half of 2019 after discontinuing the sedan variant here. It had expected to sell fewer than 50,000 units a year.

"The impact to our future sales is expected to be marginal," Kumar Galhotra, Ford's president of North America, told reporters on a conference call. "Our viewpoint is that, given the tariffs, our costs would be substantially higher. Our resources could be better deployed at this stage."

The decision will mean the end of the venerable Focus nameplate in the U.S.

Galhotra said the automaker did not see "significant risk" for its other two imports from outside North America: the EcoSport crossover from India and the Transit Connect van from Spain.

The automaker is in the midst of a global restructuring expected to cost $11 billion over the next three to five years. It's revamping its North American vehicle lineup by eliminating all sedans in the coming years as it works to achieve 10 percent profit margins in the region.

Ford said it would bring the Focus Active to the U.S. in April, when it announced the cuts to its sedan lineup and said it would be one of only two cars to remain at North American dealerships, along with the Mustang. The Focus Active already is sold in Europe, and Ford said it would continue with plans to build it in China for that market as well.

Automakers have urged the Trump administration not to impose tariffs on vehicles built in China.

General Motors recently asked for an exemption on its China-made Buick Envision, which is currently under review. If it doesn't receive that exemption, executives have warned that GM could drop that vehicle from its U.S. lineup.

Ford said an exemption would not have applied to the Focus Active because of its production timing and thus did not seek one.

The Trump administration has so far slapped 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods. Bloomberg reported this week that the administration is considering a plan to impose duties ranging from 10 to 25 percent on $200 billion in Chinese imports as soon as a public-comment period concludes next week.

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[kscarbel2]

The Ford “Focus Active” compares with the Volkswagen CrossGolf and Sportsvan, and Suzuki SX4 S-Cross, none of which unfortunately are sold in the US market.

[RoadwayR]

Hard to say what's going on, but I think that Automotive News article of 09/01/2018 may have some clues.  I think that Ford is very concerned about their situation in Western Europe, and even though they may be the #1 producer of LCV's in that market there may be some serious questions as to how profitable that operation is or may become.  Sending the big Transit to North America likely helped profitability of that vehicle line, but maybe it is not enough.  VW is likely also under considerable pressure (I am told that they may be the least efficient major auto manufacturer in the world today) and looking at the LCV market in Europe jointly developing the next generation Transit and Crafter starts to make a lot of sense.  This could be all well and good because LCV's in Europe are just about a commodity now with little real brand differentiation.  I have heard the question raised that if VW comes to the North American market with their own version of a Transit/Crafter JV van, it could cause undo competition for Ford, possibly negating any advantage Ford might enjoy from reduced development expenses.  That's certainly a possibility, but I don't think VW has any plans to enter the North American LCV market.  Conversely there may be some LCV overlap in Europe, but perhaps VW is not concerned.  After all, they had a JV with Mercedes Benz for a long time in the same market.  And, if Ford is planning on leaving Europe, there would be no issues at all.    

It is very clear this is strictly LCV's.  With VW is moving to spin off their heavy truck unit and Ford-Otosan a JV I don't see any reason they would factor in to these particular negotiations.  However, one can't help but think VW's truck unit may look at Ford's share of Ford/Otosan as a nice acquisition.    

[kscarbel2]

The VW brand, not the whole VW Group, is the least profitable brand in the world, barely above zero.

Porsche, Audi and Skoda, all very profitable, carry VW.

[Maxidyne]

That's 'cause of all the freebees they keep giving us VW owners...

[kscarbel2]

4 hours ago, Maxidyne said:

That's 'cause of all the freebees they keep giving us VW owners...

It's actually due to Germany's social welfare policies and its co-determination act of 1976 (Mitbestimmungsgesetz) which requires that half the seats on a company's board be held by Works Council (union) members (companies with over 2,000 employees).