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NEWS
Ford predicts growing SUV popularity
Family wagons increased from 17 to 23 per cent of blue oval's global sales last yearSports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) are an increasingly important market niche for Ford, the company has revealed in a press release issued overnight.
Sales of SUVs in 2012 represented 17 per cent of Ford's global sales, but in the space of just one year, that figure had risen to 23 per cent. And Ford reckons that the SUV boom is not likely to bust before 2020, when the company projects SUV sales will account for as much as 29 per cent of global sales.
In the press release, Ford quoted figures from IHS Automotive (formerly RL Polk), which showed an 88 per cent surge in global SUV demand since 2008. While Ford is at the forefront of SUV sales growth, the whole global auto industry is seeing a similar trend. According to IHS, SUVs amount to 19 per cent of the world's market.
Australia is well ahead of the rest of the world, it seems. VFACTS figures for 2013 show SUVs took 29.4 per cent of all sales. That was a slight increase on the 2012 figure of 27.6 per cent.
Ford believes the escalation in global SUV sales in the next few years will come from China, says Jim Farley, Ford executive vice president, Global Marketing, Sales and Service.
"The global desire for new utility vehicles is driving expansion in developing markets like China and helping the Ford brand reach more customers," the press release quoted Farley saying.
Currently just 17 per cent of the market in China comprises SUVs, but moving forward, even smaller increments of sales growth can have a major impact on global sales. And even in Europe, where SUVs have been traditionally slow to catch on, sales have grown from nine per cent in 2008 to 19 per cent last year. Ford's Kuga achieved 33 per cent European sales growth in 2013. For the year to date in 2014 it has been posting record sales.
In North America, Ford will capitalise on the continuing popularity of SUVs when it launches a refreshed Explorer at the Los Angeles motor show later this month, to succeed the current model (pictured).
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Written byCarsales Staff
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