jpd80

Don’t be thinking the current production limit is a true hard point. During the Fusion / MkZ days, Hermosillo was punching out well over 300,000 annually and Louisville achieved 430,000 in one year thanks to upgrades for Corsair production Smallish runs of something like vans could be set up and run on super saturdays where they are run through in batches so as to not disrupt regular production.

And this is why the buying public can be just so confounding, you'd bet money that a certain performance sedan would be a shoe in for easy sales and then they don’t show up because this or that is wrong with the car…. (Caddy CT4/CT5?)

The insane part is that there probably is a hardcore RWD car niche market that Ford could easily fill with a four door based off the Mustang’s platform. All the elements have been there for years but Farley and Ford gave us a hint at priorities when Bromco was launched - the biggest demographic open to buying a Bronco came from Mustang owners….. So yeah, Maybe Mr. Farley was cautious about offering the car knowing that eyes could be distracted from those lucrative Bronco sales? …I wonder if that view is starting to change?

Avoid importation? I have a feeling that the Bronco Sport made at Valencia will be for Europe and ROW markets only and that a US evolution of that vehicle gets built at Hermosillo as a second generation Bronco Sport. Thinking about the new Bronco Sport length vs Escape: Current Bronco Sport length 172” Current Ecape Length 178” First generation boxy Escape length 173” 2005-2007 boxy Escape Length 174.9” 2nd Gen boxy Escape length 174.7” thinking logically, a new Bronco Sport that’s 175”-176” long is still technically shorter than the latest Escape but would probably work much better at convincing Escape buyers to try it…exactly what Ford wants.

Makes me wonder is Ford being deliberately ambiguous by not clarifying product? CE1 had three vehicles at yearly intervals, the new electric platform’s flexibility would seem to be muddying the water on products, next 12 months will be really interesting

The rumours for CE1 was mid sized pickup first, then Utility (Tesla Y product space?) and a van for Ford pro but I wonder if the order is different, still maybe one vehicle launched per year?

Just my two cents, ROW designed Bronco Sport that meets both US design rules as well as EU design standards, can also be made in LHD and RHD, something the US never planned for its version of BS. As mentioned in the article the ROW version includes PHEV which is probably tricky to retro fit to US BS. Lots to like if they can pull it off, it also means that costs can be spread across more markets.

Rolls eyes, only if the government subsidises largish BEVs

A decent result considering the predicament with aluminium for F Series, the numbers are down but still over 60,000. For should consider that a small victory compared to the doom and gloom forecasts.

With respect, if there had been a flood of orders, wouldn’t Ford be crowing about it to the moon?

Wow, after the launch three weeks ago, crickets…….

On the contrary, it proved that an evolution model is cost effective and actually outlived the competition

Maverick was popular enough that Ford didn’t need to continue with the price leading hybrid, some were disappointed but I think most actual prefer a higher trim hybrid which Ford picked up as well. So this is where again, Ford will probably have a CE1 pickup base trim with standard battery for $30k but knowing, most buyers will be wanting either longer range battery or higher trim as a minimum. It’s just a clever way of leading buyers into higher prices….

Unfortunately, I think that kind of vehicle is seen as “nice to have” but not essential. Its kind of the same sort of thinking that GM adopted with the Alpha platform and Cadillac CT4 and CT5 vehicles, they cost a lot to develop, unsure of recovery.

Several problems with that, the big one being that CE1 was developed in isolation away from Ford’s own engineering to avoid valid objections and criticism. All of this new era stuff is being touted as the solution to everything wrong with the way Ford has been engineering, developing and manufacturing products, all push back on potential problems has been stifled and that’s a big worry. On suppliers, the tables have turned in recent years and thanks to so much being outsourced and so many modules now controlled by software, suppliers have Ford and other manufacturers by the nuts, one misstep with just in time supplies can close down production at the drop of a hat. People gloss over this saying, just in time in play for over 30 years, fine but Ford has never been this exposed to risk, it’s insane how much production is on a knife edge ……and now, Ford wants to introduce a completely new build process.