Ford Expects SUVs, Crossovers to Drive Global Success
Is the future of motoring in the global marketplace in the good hands of the Golf, Forte and Fiesta? Not if you’re Ford’s vice president of Global Marketing, Jim Farley. In his mind, it’ll be a page from the 1991 Explorer’s successful playbook that will help his employer gain market and mind share the world over.
According to Farley, the Blue Oval will experience an overall 23 percent growth in sales between last year and 2017, while utility vehicle sales will boom to 41 percent in the same period (and straight up explode in China with help from smaller crossover utility models such as the oft-beleaguered Escape/Kuga, EcoSport and, of course, Explorer).
As for sales in established markets, though Ford and their competitors have had difficulties overall in the European market, utility sales are expanding like the universe at the start of the Big Bang. The automaker expect their utility sales to grow 65 percent between last year and 2017, while the overall utility market is projected to grow 30 percent.
To capitalize on this potential gold mine, Ford will use their One Ford plan to globalize their lineup of utility vehicles.
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...unless of course that pesky Toyota Camry keeps messing up our plans, right guys?
Dumb, dumb, dumb. Ford needs to dump Big Al asap. He is the reason Ford is recalling their low quality appliances left and right and now his employees are making incredibly dumb statements like this. Nobody wants recall heavy Ford SUVs. They want economical cars. And Ford doesn't know how to make those.
Throwing everything into trendy "utility vehicles" worked out so well for Big 3 the last time. The market is fickle and unpredictable, over specialize as a volume player and you breed in weakness. The long development cycles exacerbate the problem. What the hell do you do when the bubble bursts and the bulk of upcoming products belong to a collapsing segment? I remember, your company goes f***king bankrupt.
Where do you think the Kuga came from?