Trader 10

I think it’s wildly optimistic to think EV’s will replace ICE on a widespread basis in ten years. The power grid is nowhere near robust enough for that to happen for one thing. Maybe 20 years.

That would seem to make a lot of sense. Should be more powerful than the 1.5 I3 with much better NVH. No reason that fuel economy couldn’t be at least as good as the Toyota 2.5 I-4.

It looks like it will die when the 2020 Fusion ends production.

Ford has the solution in the 2.5 engine that is the base motor in the current Fusion and LG Escape. It’s still a great engine even though it has not been updated since it was introduced in the 2010 Fusion and Escape. It seems crazy that Ford doesn’t upgrade it as it should be capable of 200 hp and significantly improved mileage. It would be a great base motor for the Escape, Baby Bronco, and NG Fusion (whatever that turns out to be).

Thanks for that info. I will consider the NG model to replace my ‘15 if it looks like an evolution of the current model.

I believe it was Fuzzy that said the NG Edge looks somewhat similar to the Escape. If so, I hope Ford hasn’t locked the final design in yet and will reconsider.

Ford has plenty of capacity to produce a top seller, it doesn’t have a good enough product to attract that many buyers.

Exactly. Same goes for the Rivian. Also, Ford is “on track to launch self-driving vehicles for commercial use in 2021”? I think most would agree that there isn’t a snowballs chance in hell AV’s will be on public roadways for years.

I would think any new Lincoln sedans will move to CD6.

https://www.autoblog.com/2019/12/07/ford-ev-patent-skateboard-chassis/

It’s a good strategy but Ford has to execute with a desirable Escape that has at least some visual excitement. It’s almost as if Ford deliberately came up with a boring, generic design to push buyers to the more expensive Baby Bronco.

I think Ford’s in trouble with the new Escape. It’s just not a good enough effort in a class with lots of competition. There are a lot of remaining 2019’s even with $5000 rebates. I don’t think the new model sells anywhere close to the last generation unless big rebates are in place. The new Explorer has jumped a lot in price which may explain the decline there.

Of course the only Fusions selling well are the cheap models - its what happens when you’re competition is a generation newer. You don’t think a class competitive Fusion would be able to command higher ATP’s similar to Camry, Accord, etc? Ford has lots of unused capacity at its Mexican, Mustang, and Edge assembly plants. A sport wagon is fine - it just likely won’t be a big seller.

I can’t imagine a new Fusion being built on anything other than C2. It would cost billions to develop on C2 using the same power plants as the Escape? Looks to me looks Ford’s issue the next few years will be excess production capacity not the other way around.

A new Fusion will be able to generate higher ATP’s - the current model is discounted because it is not competitive with newer competition. I don’t think the Escape is cheaper to manufacture. - i believe the Mexican built Fusion is cheaper to build. (Also an assumption). A market totaling 1.9 million vehicles/year is still huge.

I’m not arguing that the Escape isn’t profitable - just that a new Fusion should be more profitable being built in Mexico as it should be able to be priced at least as high as the Escape is.

I’m hoping that within the next 3 years Ford is making a CD6 4 door Mustang (and Lincoln)and a C2 based Fusion sedan. The CD cars should be able to command high enough prices to make good margins at relatively low volumes. The mid sized car market has declined in volume but there is more than enough potential for Ford to have an entry. There is no reason why Ford cant make an acceptable margin on 100,000 or more Fusions with low cost labor(Mexican plant). A new Fusion should be able to return better margins than Escape.

https://www.autoblog.com/2019/11/26/lincoln-electric-suv-rivian-skateboard-chassis/

An apples to apples comparison would be an actual production truck vs. the F150.

The Mach E is generating a huge amount of publicity for Ford. Autoblog alone has 7 or 8 Mustang articles in the past day.

https://www.autoblog.com/2019/11/13/ford-bronco-rivals-not-worried/ We’ll see.

Indicating the NG Ranger will follow suit?

Some full size GM wagons from the 70’s offered this clamshell tailgate - glass disappeared into the roof and the bottom section slid underneath. (I know this has nothing to do with Bronco but it shows some of the “interesting” engineering that went wagons).

Accord and Camry sold in large part to their reputation (deserved or not) for superior quality relative to the competition. Escape doesn’t have that. I disagree that Escape “is the boring segment for people buying appliances” but it appears Ford is banking on that being the case.

You may be right but I don’t think any market demographic will react favorably to bland.