The Fords in your future

COMMENT

Ford Australia's future remains unclear – to motoring journalists and the broader community at least.

Well-founded rumours have indicated that the Ford Edge will succeed Territory after production of the locally-designed family SUV ends in October, and Ford Australia expects to make an announcement on that front within six months.

The Edge in its latest (second-generation) model is built in Canada on the CD4 Platform, and is exported to the United Kingdom in right-hand drive form, where at 30,000 pounds sterling it is pitched against the BMW X3 and Audi Q5. Both its 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol and 2.0-litre turbo-diesel engines are shared with the Mondeo sold in Australia.

Producing RHD variants on the CD4 platform obviously isn't a challenge. The platform is impressively adaptive and has been engineered for front-wheel drive as well as all-wheel-drive variations. It stretches in size from Mondeo to the new 2017 Lincoln Continental.

If Ford Australia can buy the Edge in Canadian dollars, there are few reasons not to rubber stamp the deal. Currently, one Canadian dollar buys 1.00022 Aussie dollars, which is as near to parity as makes no difference.

There's one sticking point however. Ford's global head office in Dearborn, Michigan, insists Edge is not heading to Australia. But sources within Ford's corporate labyrinth have confirmed that a proposal from Ford Australia awaits Dearborn's approval. Read into that what you will...

As for the Falcon, talk around the water cooler points to Mondeo as the de facto large family car after the locally-produced sedan's departure.

No one in recent times has mentioned the larger (Fairlane-sized) Taurus entering the Australian market – and here's why: Ford moves around 3000 Taurus sedans each month in the US. When adjusted for population, the Taurus is selling at less than half the volume of Falcon.

Ford is believed to be relying heavily on designers and engineers at its Asia-Pacific Engineering Centre in Broadmeadows, Victoria to develop a unique Taurus sedan for China. These are the same engineers who fettled Falcon for the past few decades.

If speculation proves true, the Taurus will probably be assembled by Ford's joint-venture partner Changan at its Chongqing plant.

But it's practically inconceivable Ford Australia will offer local buyers the China-made Taurus; new-car buyers aren't buying big sedans, plain and simple. They're buying SUVs, as VFACTS shows. SUV sales are running hot with double-digit growth in Australia and in the US. Western markets in general are trending toward smaller, more fuel efficient passenger cars, and increasingly toward hybrid powertrains.

The numbers don't lie, and they provide a very clear explanation as to why Dearborn isn't rushing to engineer Taurus for RHD.

What about Explorer? It's a large-format soft-roader with a seven-seat option and the on-road presence to keep Toyota's Kluger honest.

The Explorer is available in front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive with either a powerful petrol 2.3-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine or two variants of a 3.5-litre V6 – turbo and non-turbo. While the current Explorer had been specifically ruled out for Australia, there's a new Explorer on the way for 2017. And that vehicle is planned to go on sale in Europe, it's understood, making right-hand drive for the UK market a virtual necessity.

On the road the Explorer is more car-ish than brutish and shares nothing with the Explorer last sold in Australia in 2005. It could be an asset to Ford Australia...

Whatever new Ford product rolls into the Australian market from 2017, one thing is crystal clear. No longer can Dearborn treat Ford Australia as just some remote outpost.

Falcon and Territory have been orphan models on an orphan platform within a company that's still trying to unite and streamline its engineering and design under One Ford.

Ford Australia will shut the gate on local production of Falcon and Territory in less than 10 months. It will happen one day in October [Ed: October 7, to be precise]. Workers will simply down tools and Ford will end over 90 years of assembling and manufacturing in Australia.

The transition from manufacturer to full-line importer is not an easy transformation but it can work when done correctly, as Nissan did in 1992 and Mitsubishi did in 2008. Ford Australia without its own local manufacturing plant may be better suited to compete strategically against more agile, more aggressive and more disciplined Asian and European competitors.

If Ford Australia is to remain competitive against its Asian and European competitors, it needs the full product support of Ford North America and Ford Europe to provide RHD variants across all nameplates – and that includes F-Series pick-up too.