justins Posted March 29, 2022 Share Posted March 29, 2022 https://www.drive.com.au/news/its-official-ford-f-150-coming-to-ford-australia-showrooms-2023/ Thai company are setting up remanufacturing facility in Melbourne to perform RHD conversion, to be overseen by Ford Oz and US engineers. Will be sold and supported through entire FoA dealer network. This will give FoA a major competitive advantage over RAM and Chevy (GMSV). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted March 29, 2022 Share Posted March 29, 2022 20 minutes ago, justins said: https://www.drive.com.au/news/its-official-ford-f-150-coming-to-ford-australia-showrooms-2023/ Thai company are setting up remanufacturing facility in Melbourne to perform RHD conversion, to be overseen by Ford Oz and US engineers. Will be sold and supported through entire FoA dealer network. This will give FoA a major competitive advantage over RAM and Chevy (GMSV). Judging by Ram sales, this could be around 300/month of regular high $$ sales. A RHD conversation post factory adds about USD$30k to the price Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justins Posted March 29, 2022 Author Share Posted March 29, 2022 18 minutes ago, jpd80 said: Judging by Ram sales, this could be around 300/month of regular high $$ sales. A RHD conversation post factory adds about USD$30k to the price I think that will be grossly limited by production capacity. In 2020, RAM sold ~50 vehicles per dealer (based on current dealer number of 63) FoA has 180 dealers, so I think demand could (and probably will) easily outstrip supply. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted March 29, 2022 Share Posted March 29, 2022 50 minutes ago, justins said: I think that will be grossly limited by production capacity. In 2020, RAM sold ~50 vehicles per dealer (based on current dealer number of 63) FoA has 180 dealers, so I think demand could (and probably will) easily outstrip supply. I’m hoping and praying that’s right but the trucks will probably start at just over AUS$100k for the XLT /(~US$70k). Ranger is still very popular so there could be some sales bleed upwards to F150 but that’s to be expected when people see the bang for bucks on offer, also far less limitation for towing big caravans and payload on board like jerry cans of fuel and what not for those who venture into the outback away from everything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bzcat Posted March 29, 2022 Share Posted March 29, 2022 You can see the volume projection and why Ford (or anyone else) didn't bother with factory RHD. ~4000 a year (how many Ram sold last year) is significant volume for Australia but not even a speed bump in the US. But as I have said before many times, F-150 is an ideal product for Australia and if Ford Australia can figure out how to do it profitably, this will be a steady and growing business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bzcat Posted March 29, 2022 Share Posted March 29, 2022 6 hours ago, jpd80 said: Judging by Ram sales, this could be around 300/month of regular high $$ sales. A RHD conversation post factory adds about USD$30k to the price That's probably based on a very low volume projection - i.e. initially when Ram projected to sell only a few hundred a year. The article said the investment in tooling is AUS$10-12 million per vehicle. Let's double that to include compliance costs and other testing. So roughly AUS$22 million. If you can sell 4,000 units a year over 5 years, that's about AUS$1,100 per unit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted March 29, 2022 Share Posted March 29, 2022 4 hours ago, bzcat said: That's probably based on a very low volume projection - i.e. initially when Ram projected to sell only a few hundred a year. The article said the investment in tooling is AUS$10-12 million per vehicle. Let's double that to include compliance costs and other testing. So roughly AUS$22 million. If you can sell 4,000 units a year over 5 years, that's about AUS$1,100 per unit. Of course, I’m comparing the situation with Ram where Walkinshaw supplies converted Rams and Silverados to respective Stellantis/GM dealerships here in Australia, they received similar help from those corporates as well as managing to reduce conversion times from 140 hours down to about half of that. Ford will want to be paid for everything they supply and change post factory and while the LHD parts will go back to the US for a credit, I’m pretty sure the costs will still be up there’s also about $15,000 in labor charges that I can think of straight up…. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justins Posted March 29, 2022 Author Share Posted March 29, 2022 I think 4k units will be underestimating things. It will still be a drop in the ocean, but I wouldn't be surprised to see numbers of 7k units pretty quickly, production allowing. Anecdotally there seems to be a lot of knowledge of and loyalty to the F series here (even though it hasn't been sold here for years), and with the dealer base, 7k/yr is only 3 units per month per dealer. 2 units per dealer or month puts it at over 4k annually. I think they'll walk that in. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 It’s funny, sometimes it’s like Ford isn’t listening and then suddenly they are. F150 presence at dealers will be huge, many have never seen them up close 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bzcat Posted March 31, 2022 Share Posted March 31, 2022 Agree, F-150 and Australia seemed like such a natural fit. And honestly, so are Explorer and Bronco but RHD is the challenging hurdle for Ford Australia to clear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted April 1, 2022 Share Posted April 1, 2022 (edited) 14 hours ago, bzcat said: Agree, F-150 and Australia seemed like such a natural fit. And honestly, so are Explorer and Bronco but RHD is the challenging hurdle for Ford Australia to clear. Word is that the dealer bulletin about this release makes for interesting reading. Apparently, it says that this is just the beginning and Ford will be bringing more iconic models to Australia in the coming years. So this may just be an introduction to more US models. Edited April 1, 2022 by jpd80 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmc523 Posted April 1, 2022 Share Posted April 1, 2022 7 hours ago, jpd80 said: Word is that the dealer bulletin about this release makes for interesting reading. Apparently, it says that this is just the beginning and Ford will be bringing more iconic models to Australia in the coming years. So this may just be an introduction to more US models. If that's true, I don't see how Bronco doesn't make its way down there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twintornados Posted April 1, 2022 Share Posted April 1, 2022 46 minutes ago, rmc523 said: If that's true, I don't see how Bronco doesn't make its way down there. It should be easier to bring Bronco "down under" since it shares mechanicals with Ranger, conversion to RHD should be easier. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted April 1, 2022 Share Posted April 1, 2022 (edited) 8 hours ago, twintornados said: It should be easier to bring Bronco "down under" since it shares mechanicals with Ranger, conversion to RHD should be easier. I’m thinking if RHD projects are under direct Ford control, it will do the upmost to reduce costs with design changes, access to suppliers and even recycling of LHD parts that are returned to the originating US plant. The competition, Most post production RHD conversions are done by independent companies that buy US vehicles, pay all importation costs, do conversions and then add their margins which combined with taxes is then about Aus$40k over US domestic retail price. If Ford Australia does sourcing of F150 internally, supplies all necessary parts and engineering oversight, pays a contractor to do the conversions, then the whole project could be less costly than competitors selling converted RAM and Silverado. Edited April 2, 2022 by jpd80 Grammar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bzcat Posted April 1, 2022 Share Posted April 1, 2022 If F-150 RHD is profitable in Australia, I see no reason why Ford Aus wouldn't jump on Bronco next. Like @twintornados mentioned, RHD steering rack already exists in the parts list so it is actually less complicated. I'm sure Ford New Zealand and South Africa will love to join the program too if this project has capacity to spare. If F-150 and Bronco have RHD conversion, plus factory RHD Mustang and Mach E, Ford could have a pretty decent line up in Australia for the first time since Telstar and Laser were yanked out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twintornados Posted April 2, 2022 Share Posted April 2, 2022 (edited) 12 hours ago, bzcat said: If F-150 RHD is profitable in Australia, I see no reason why Ford Aus wouldn't jump on Bronco next. Like @twintornados mentioned, RHD steering rack already exists in the parts list so it is actually less complicated. I'm sure Ford New Zealand and South Africa will love to join the program too if this project has capacity to spare. If F-150 and Bronco have RHD conversion, plus factory RHD Mustang and Mach E, Ford could have a pretty decent line up in Australia for the first time since Telstar and Laser were yanked out. If F150 is profitable in Australia, I would wonder if Ford would bring Expedition down as well....F150 and Expedition also share a lot of mechanicals... Edited April 2, 2022 by twintornados Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ausrutherford Posted April 3, 2022 Share Posted April 3, 2022 In the future, building RHD should be easier even an EV platform I would think. Less parts to move around for a conversion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted April 3, 2022 Share Posted April 3, 2022 4 hours ago, ausrutherford said: In the future, building RHD should be easier even an EV platform I would think. Less parts to move around for a conversion. I doubt it, there’s still all the same physical equipment that needs to be changed like Instrument panel, steering wheel, accelerator/brakes, windscreen wipers, headlights, steering rack and even head lights. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bzcat Posted April 4, 2022 Share Posted April 4, 2022 (edited) RHD conversion is not that difficult. It just cost money that companies like Ford didn't want to spend because volume projection is so low. BTW, this is why GM shut down Holden. Without Vauxhall and GM Korea footing the bill for RHD tooling for dashboard and steering parts etc. It was cost prohibitive for GM to just make them for Australia and New Zealand. Ford is still in Australia mainly because the entire Europe range, Mustang, and Edge are still available in RHD because of UK. Adding US-only trucks and SUVs to RHD only works as long as price premium supports such project - e.g. GM tried to make RHD Acadia for Holden but sales didn't meet expectation and that was basically the final nail on Holden's coffin. Edited April 4, 2022 by bzcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted April 5, 2022 Share Posted April 5, 2022 Ford in Australia sell very few of the European vehicles you mentioned, they can’t get stock, Mustang was like 117 last month What is hurting is the long delay on Ranger runout, 2900 last month when Hilux scooted to 6,300 sales, mostly order backlog. It takes around 80 to 100 hours to convert a full sized pickup, other brands are adding AUS$30k to $40k to the US domestic LHD price , I expect Ford doing in-house to be much better and pass on some of the savings of getting lower priced bulk deals ect.., Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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