Ford still mulling Territory replacement

With little more than 12 months to go until the end of Territory production, Ford Australia has a decision to make vis-à-vis the model's replacement.

Ford this week staged the regional launch of the Everest, a full-chassis off-road wagon based on the Ranger ute and aimed directly at Toyota's top-selling Prado with a starting price over $50,000.

The Blue Oval has consistently said the Australian-designed, Thai-built Everest, which will arrive here exclusively with four-wheel drive, seven seats and diesel power in October, is not a replacement for the homegrown Territory – a Falcon-based crossover available in five- and seven-seat form with six-cylinder petrol and diesel power, the latter accounting for 70 per cent of sales.

Now it has confirmed there will be a direct replacement for the Territory to compete with seven-seat petrol crossovers like the Toyota Kluger, Nissan Pathfinder and Mazda CX-9, and although it admits a decision is yet to be made, an announcement is expected by the end of this year.

"We rapidly expanded our leading line-up of SUVs with the recent additions of EcoSport and Kuga, and the arrival now of the new Everest," said Ford Australia's communication and public affairs director, Wes Sherwood.

"We plan to build on that momentum by replacing the Territory after it is retired next year. We plan to discuss more details by early next year."

As we've reported, the most likely options are imported versions of the Edge or Explorer, either of which could continue the Territory nameplate in Australia from 2017.

The Edge is produced in five-seat form in Canada – in both left- and right-hand drive – and in seven-seat guise in China, although imports from the world's largest automotive market appear unlikely.

Alternatively, Ford Australia could wait for the next-generation Explorer, which is due by 2017. More than seven million examples of "America's favourite SUV" have been sold since its introduction in 1990 and the current, Taurus sedan-based Explorer is a very different model to the truck-based SUV last sold in Australia in 2008.

The new Explorer will share its (EU-CD) monocoque platform with the latest Mondeo and has the potential to be offered in both right- and left-hand drive markets.

A third option – and one Ford says is a possibility if customer demand is strong enough – is to offer the Everest in cheaper two-wheel drive petrol format.

Globally, the Everest is offered with the choice of one petrol and two diesel engines. From launch, Australia will only take the high-output diesel 4WD variant priced from $54,990 – almost $20,000 more than the Territory's $37,490 starting price.

The Territory has found more than 165,000 customers since it was introduced in Australia in 2004. The current SZ II series ranks sixth in segment sales with year-to-date sales of 4760.

The Prado currently tops the large SUV segment locally with 7872 sales to the end of June, narrowly pipping its showroom sibling, the Kluger, with 6780 sales and Jeep's Grand Cherokee on 6441. So far this year the Subaru Outback and Holden Captiva 7 have also snuck ahead of the Territory with 5465 and 5110 sales respectively.