Ford CEO Jim Farley Apparently Made Big Decision In Australia

[Sherminator98]

https://fordauthority.com/2026/03/ford-ceo-jim-farley-apparently-made-big-decision-in-australia/

[jpd80]

he was down here to

1. sign off on a pickup project (vehicle with Bronco Sport front seen at Lara test area)

2. Warn Aussie government that its New Vehicle Efficiency Standard is putting T6 Engineering at risk

3. drive Ranger Super Duty and the vehicles it competes with like Landcruiser 70 series.

4. catch up with Ford’s V8 Supercars teams

4. attend the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix race

Edited March 19 by jpd80

[DeluxeStang]

35 minutes ago, jpd80 said:

he was down here to

1. sign off on a pickup project (vehicle with Bronco Sport front seen at Lara test area)

2. Warn Aussie government that its New Vehicle Efficiency Standard is putting T6 Engineering at risk

3. drive Ranger Super Duty and the vehicles it competes with like Landcruiser 70 series.

4. catch up with Ford’s V8 Supercars teams

4. attend the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix race

Sounds like a pretty productive few days. Out of curiosity, where did you hear about your first point? I haven't seen said product mentioned on this site thus far. Is it possible a smaller truck with a BS front end could be the affordable bronco truck Borg talked about?

[jpd80]

11 hours ago, DeluxeStang said:

Sounds like a pretty productive few days. Out of curiosity, where did you hear about your first point? I haven't seen said product mentioned on this site thus far. Is it possible a smaller truck with a BS front end could be the affordable bronco truck Borg talked about?

I mentioned it in the thread with a carscoops article linked regarding a modern Falcon pickup

Below the car scoop article website one of the comments was from  a person local to the

testing ground in Victoria but has since deleted his post….not a solid source.

 

I’m searching for confirmation / info not in the public domain, may take a while….

[Biker16]

20 hours ago, jpd80 said:

he was down here to

2. Warn Aussie government that its New Vehicle Efficiency Standard is putting T6 Engineering at risk

 

Meanwhile, the world is at war over Oil with no end in sight. 

 

While OZ, having abundant solar, and wind, wants to move back to oil?

 

Make it make sense.

[DeluxeStang]

8 hours ago, jpd80 said:

I mentioned it in the thread with a carscoops article linked regarding a modern Falcon pickup

Below the car scoop article website one of the comments was from  a person local to the

testing ground in Victoria but has since deleted his post….not a solid source.

 

I’m searching for confirmation / info not in the public domain, may take a while….

Maybe a next gen maverick that moves even closer to the BS in terms of styling?

[twintornados]

1 minute ago, DeluxeStang said:

Maybe a next gen maverick that moves even closer to the BS in terms of styling?

 

I see that happening from a cost sharing point of view....more commonality between the two equals lower costs overall due to the ability to spread amortization costs over a wider field. They could still have unique grilles and trim treatments. 

[Sherminator98]

1 hour ago, Biker16 said:

 

Meanwhile, the world is at war over Oil with no end in sight. 

 

While OZ, having abundant solar, and wind, wants to move back to oil?

 

Make it make sense.

 

Your not getting rid of oil for at least another 50 years, if not longer. Even if you get rid of it for vehicles, you still need it for other industries. 

[rmc523]

3 hours ago, DeluxeStang said:

Maybe a next gen maverick that moves even closer to the BS in terms of styling?

 

One of my theories was that the low cost pickup will just be a Bronco Sport Trac - Bronco Sport with a bed.  It'd have a fair amount of overlap with the current Maverick, though.

[jpd80]

6 hours ago, Biker16 said:

 

Meanwhile, the world is at war over Oil with no end in sight. 

 

While OZ, having abundant solar, and wind, wants to move back to oil?

 

Make it make sense.

That’s not true, the new vehicle emission standard will eventually make it impossible for diesel pickups to be sold in Australia, how is that going back to oil dependency.

 

Also our Aussie electric power grid is rapidly transitioning to green power and as of 2024 was 40% and inceasing

with desire to be 85% by the middle of the 2030s.

[jpd80]

2 hours ago, rmc523 said:

 

One of my theories was that the low cost pickup will just be a Bronco Sport Trac - Bronco Sport with a bed.  It'd have a fair amount of overlap with the current Maverick, though.

Now that would make a ton of sense with both being built together in the same plant,

maybe replicate that in another plant elsewhere too (like Thailand third plant?)

Edited March 20 by jpd80

[Biker16]

5 hours ago, Sherminator98 said:

 

Your not getting rid of oil for at least another 50 years, if not longer. Even if you get rid of it for vehicles, you still need it for other industries. 

 

I feel like you missed my point 

 

There is a concept in economics called substitute

 

 

EVs are a substitute for vehicles that use oil.

 

Encouraging more efficient use of oil by moving to a cheaper and more plentiful resource is smart. and preserves oil for those uses that can't easily be substituted.

 

Australia isn't banning ICE sales, much like the US they are tightening emissions standards to encourage the sale of new energy vehicles.

[Biker16]

53 minutes ago, jpd80 said:

That’s not true, the new vehicle emission standard will eventually make it impossible for diesel pickups to be sold in Australia, how is that going back to oil dependency.

 

Also our Aussie electric power grid is rapidly transitioning to green power and as of 2024 was 40% and inceasing

with desire to be 85% by the middle of the 2030s.

 

As I understand it, the new energy standards are based on carbon emissions. Am I mistaken?

 

Diesels are dirty and expensive, and will continue to be phased out.

[jpd80]

1 minute ago, Biker16 said:

 

As I understand it, the new energy standards are based on carbon emissions. Am I mistaken?

Yes but diesel pickups like Ranger and Hilux have exemptions until 2028

PHEV Ranger complies with 2028 CO2 level today

 

1 minute ago, Biker16 said:

Diesels are dirty and expensive, and will continue to be phased out.

And this is why Ford is selling as many V6 diesel Rangers as it can, they know PHEV is the future and European market will lead that change

[DeluxeStang]

4 hours ago, rmc523 said:

 

One of my theories was that the low cost pickup will just be a Bronco Sport Trac - Bronco Sport with a bed.  It'd have a fair amount of overlap with the current Maverick, though.

That's possible, but I believe if Ford were to make a small, BS based pickup, it would just be the next gen maverick with even more rugged styling cues. Especially considering the fact that the boxy styling has proven to be such a big draw with the mav, I could see Ford doubling down on that with the next iteration. 

 

It's possible that what Ford is also trying to do is have a more consistent design language, at least across their off-road products. We get a next gen BS and a maverick that more closely resembles it's styling, maybe saving Ford money by letting them share body stampings in some areas. Then you get a next gen full sized bronco, and full sized bronco truck to replace the ranger.

Edited March 21 by DeluxeStang

[jpd80]

I think the whole point is that Ford needs competitive vehicles to sell in Europe and Asia,

not just those commodity vehicles that Farley cringes over, so yeah make your next global

utility and pickup something with character that are d-e-s-I-r-a-b-l-e and something that

people will pay more to own.

[DeluxeStang]

1 hour ago, jpd80 said:

I think the whole point is that Ford needs competitive vehicles to sell in Europe and Asia,

not just those commodity vehicles that Farley cringes over, so yeah make your next global

utility and pickup something with character that are d-e-s-I-r-a-b-l-e and something that

people will pay more to own.

 

1 hour ago, jpd80 said:

I think the whole point is that Ford needs competitive vehicles to sell in Europe and Asia,

not just those commodity vehicles that Farley cringes over, so yeah make your next global

utility and pickup something with character that are d-e-s-I-r-a-b-l-e and something that

people will pay more to own.

This, there's a way to offer new escape and edge replacements, even sedan and hatchback replacements as well, that makes them more profitable to produce, and aligns with Ford's strategy of no boring cars. There's a way to do an escape size and edge sized crossovers that are bolder, and more desirable than what they replaced. There's a way to do a hatchback with fun, expressive styling. 

 

Yet Farley seems to be incapable of considering this. I give him credit on a lot of things, but I'm expressed my disappointment with Ford just killing off everything that's even vaguely boring instead of try to find ways to make said products more aspirational. 

 

The frustrating thing is Ford seems to want to avoid overly saturated segments, but also go where the most profit is. The issue is the most profitable and lucrative segments of the industry tend to attract the most competition. What Ford really needs is a kickass series of platforms that makes them profitable and sustainable, even in segments where there's a ton of competition, instead of just running from competition once it gets hard. Hopefully CE1 is the answer on that front. 

[jpd80]

To be fair here, I think many of the previous C2 and CD4 efforts were way more expensive 

to build than previous Mazda based platforms and that was a big surprise to Mulally’s team,

they could never get their heads around how efficient Mazda was at designing products and

why they should have been kept.

Edited March 21 by jpd80

[morgan20]

13 hours ago, jpd80 said:

I think the whole point is that Ford needs competitive vehicles to sell in Europe and Asia

 

Hey jpd80 my friend, would vehicles that are competitive in Europe and Asia necessarily be competitive in Australia? Or are Australian car buyers a different breed with preferences that diverge from buyers in Europe and Asia?

 

You know the Australia market as well as anyone here, so your thoughts are appreciated 😊

[sullynd]

18 hours ago, rmc523 said:

 

One of my theories was that the low cost pickup will just be a Bronco Sport Trac - Bronco Sport with a bed.  It'd have a fair amount of overlap with the current Maverick, though.

But Ford has positioned the BS as “premium” - the Maverick based SUV was supposed to slot below it, so how would it make sense for a BS truck to slot below the Maverick?

[twintornados]

1 minute ago, sullynd said:

But Ford has positioned the BS as “premium” - the Maverick based SUV was supposed to slot below it, so how would it make sense for a BS truck to slot below the Maverick?

 

The more important question would be how would a SUV based on Maverick distinguish itself from a Bronco Sport? One way I can figure is that a Maverick SUV would be available as a FWD only variant with hybrid options of course and more room (longer wheelbase) for rear seat passengers. It is going to get muddled if/when Maverick and Bronco Sport move closer to each other stylistically.

[akirby]

16 hours ago, DeluxeStang said:

Yet Farley seems to be incapable of considering this. I give him credit on a lot of things, but I'm expressed my disappointment with Ford just killing off everything that's even vaguely boring instead of try to find ways to make said products more aspirational. 

But that's exactly what they did with Maverick and Bronco Sport.  They couldn't do other stuff because the resources got diverted to EVs.  Now they've been diverted back to ICE.  

[akirby]

11 hours ago, jpd80 said:

To be fair here, I think many of the previous C2 and CD4 efforts were way more expensive 

to build than previous Mazda based platforms and that was a big surprise to Mulally’s team,

they could never get their heads around how efficient Mazda was at designing products and

why they should have been kept.

As someone who owned both mazda based and eucd based vehicles the difference was obvious.   Mazdas were simple, light and rock solid.  C1/CD4s were heavy and overengineered and too complex.  C2 fixed a lot but came too late.

[DeluxeStang]

14 minutes ago, akirby said:

But that's exactly what they did with Maverick and Bronco Sport.  They couldn't do other stuff because the resources got diverted to EVs.  Now they've been diverted back to ICE.  

I'm referring to them killing off stuff like the edge and escape. I feel like if they had gotten to the point where they were "boring" instead of killing them off, Ford should have just re-envisioned them in a way that made them more compelling. 

[DeluxeStang]

16 minutes ago, akirby said:

But that's exactly what they did with Maverick and Bronco Sport.  They couldn't do other stuff because the resources got diverted to EVs.  Now they've been diverted back to ICE.  

It's my personal hope that CE1 becomes the basis for Ford returning to affordable, fun products, moreso than what they already offer.