Aussie Focus? Not Likely
Suggestions that Ford will add Focus derivatives to its local production lines still don't add upSpeculation Ford Australia will use its excess production capacity to build a Focus based model in Australia is off target.
Ford spokesperson Ed Finn last week reiterated that the local arm had every confidence in the company's South African facility supplying any surge in local demand for the small car in its various forms.
In doing so, Finn refused to lend any credibility to the rumour that would see a front-drive Focus derivative (probably a small SUV) to the local rear-drive Falcon and Territory assembly line. As Ford Australia is one of the few companies that has successfully combined the manufacture of separate front and rear-drive model ranges, it knows what it takes.
Ford Australia permanently turned its back on this capability in late 1994 when local Ford Laser production was terminated and the dedicated Laser assembly plant in Homebush, New South Wales was dismantled.
Virtually every other local company has come to grief trying to combine front and rear-drive production on a single assembly line. Those that survived the experiment have since switched exclusively to one configuration or the other.
As the world's biggest car companies have also been forced to choose a single drivetrain configuration for each assembly operation, there is even less reason for Ford to revive a small local assembly operation for a front-drive car when all its local models are based on a rear-drive platform.
The main reason for mixing the two configurations in the first place was to avoid punitive import duties which no longer exist. The process of assembling and dropping a single module consisting of front suspension, engine, transmission and driveshafts into the body shell of a front-drive model is very different to building a rear-drive vehicle where these components are spread from front to rear.
To build both under the one roof requires costly and space-consuming duplication of assembly lines at certain build stages that makes no sense if the vehicle is already being produced cost-effectively at a dedicated facility.
Ford's comments on this issue are far more telling than the speculation that surrounds them.
The company has stated that the "next stage in Ford Australia's new manufacturing strategy is to improve the capacity utilisation at its Campbellfield manufacturing plant."
"We are currently investigating a number of alternatives that will allow us to return our Campbellfield manufacturing facility to 100 per cent capacity," said Ford Australia boss, Tom Gorman.
The number of these alternatives have suddenly grown since Ford Australia announced that it will switch to a US-sourced Duratec engine range for its rear-drive models in 2010.
Ford Australia's biggest current project is not a new Falcon or Territory but the clean sheet development of a global replacement for the Ford Ranger/Mazda BT50 one tonne commercial range. Staff who worked on the Geelong inline six and its turbo derivatives were moved to the project some time ago indicating that the decision to move to an imported six-cylinder engine is not a recent one.
Although Ford Australia originally did not plan to build this new model in Australia, rapidly growing twin-cab ute sales may have changed that viewpoint. Just as Holden has re-powered its imported Rodeo light commercials with a petrol engine similar to the Commodore's, the Australian-developed global Ford Ranger replacement will now share the same Duratec family of engines headed for the Falcon and Territory in 2010.
As this new model will follow a similar rear-drive build sequence to the Falcon and Territory with the same powertrain, several upmarket versions exclusive to the Campbellfield assembly line would make the most sense.
Our bet is that Ford Australia is far more likely to end up building Toyota Prado and HiLux rivals in much the same way as Nissan's Spanish facility is the source of the upmarket D40 Navara dual cab ute and its SUV 'partner', the Pathfinder SUV.
As the Australian specification would likely be very similar to British and European requirements, it would also make sense to export the Australian version to these markets.
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