Aussie-designed Ford trucks for US

Ford Motor Company and North America's United Auto Workers union have tentatively agreed to a new labour contract that could see the Blue Oval's Australian-designed Ranger ute and Everest SUV built in Detroit and sold in the US.

According to unnamed sources cited by respected news agencies Automotive News and The Detroit Free Press, the preliminary enterprise agreement – which will be voted on late this week – a number of key product investments as part of a $US9 billion US production package over the next four years.

They include a commitment by Ford to bring the mid-size Ranger pick-up back to US showrooms and to revive the storied Bronco nameplate.

Both vehicles would be built at the Ford Michigan Assembly Plant in the Detroit suburb of Wayne, where Ford eliminated a shift and 700 workers by the end of September following slow sales of small cars built there -- the Focus, Focus ST, Focus Electric, C-Max hybrid and C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid.

Production of the Ranger is expected to begin in 2018, with a ‘second new model’ to follow in 2020. Reported to wear the historical Bronco name, the latter is almost certain to be a rebadged version of the Everest, which is based on the same Australian-engineered T6 platform as the Ranger.

These new ladder-chassis models have the potential to replace production of the Focus and C-Max, next-generation manufacture of which appears set to be relocated outside the US in 2018, possibly to Mexico.

North American production of the mid-size Fusion (Mondeo) and large Taurus sedan could also end once the current generations are wound up, according to a summary of the labour agreement deal.

The Fusion should continue to be built in Mexico, but according to Automotive News the Taurus may continue as a model built and sold only in China, and based on the Fusion/Mondeo platform.

If that occurs, the Ford Mustang and Lincoln Continental – which joins the pony car at Flat Rock near Detroit – will be the only FoMoCo cars still produced in the US.

Meantime, the Ranger and Everest would take pride of place at the Motown factory formerly known as the Michigan Truck Plant, which opened in 1957 and from 1966 has produced the Ford Bronco, F-Series, Expedition and Lincoln Navigator.

While Australia's Ranger and Everest are, like most one-tonne utes sold here, produced in Thailand, the new mid-size pick-up will provide Ford of America with a direct rival to Toyota's Tacoma, the Chevrolet Colorado, GMC Canyon and Nissan Frontier.

The labour deal, which reportedly affects 53,000 hourly Ford workers, is expected to "create or keep" 8500 jobs and bring production of unnamed vehicles to Ford factories in Chicago and Ohio.