Actually you’re both right. The platform was too expensive to make money competing in that market. It doesn’t matter if you have a better design or better features or better performance. Majority of buyers aren’t willing to pay a premium.
What you’re talking about is a performance sedan that can command higher prices and therefore profits, but that’s a much lower volume product which is different than a mid sized family sedans. In the world of toasters price is king.
I agree, I personally view this a "Let's get the volume sellers out the door and see how they do, and then move into the fun stuff" kind of vehicle. A combination of aspirational halo models to give the tech and platform appeal, and more practical volume sellers would be the best mix imo.
I will say this platform is far more performance oriented than many of us thought it would be, so that gives Ford a lot of possibilities in what sorts of products they want to offer.
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.
Couldn't agree more. A new sedan with a more compelling design, and overall package would really give Ford something unique, and relying very heavily on platform sharing should in theory resolve the profitability issues Ford's previous sedans and hatchbacks had.
Thanks for the video my friend. What the head honcho should have said is Ford lost a lot of money on things like the fusion because those products were commodity anonymous unibody sedans for which Ford had to apply a shit ton of sales incentives. It ain't because of the platform Jimbo!
Anyway, an affordable performance EV sedan with a unique design that takes advantage of the newfangled processes developed at the skunkworks sounds promising. If Ford is going to offer new sedans for North America at all (not that it needs to), that's the way to do it.
The head up display plastic screen on my 2022 Escape has come off. Has anyone else had this issue? The dealership said they would have to replace the whole HUD unit. Am I being taken advantage of?
Fun interview overall, haven't watched the full vid yet, but he talks about affordable EVs, the main one he's focusing on is an affordable performance EV sedan.
He says how there's still a sizable market for sedans, but talks about how Ford lost a lot of money on things like the fusion because of the platform it used. He goes on to mention how sedans make a lot of sense for an EV due to having really solid aero, and then gets into details on what kind of sedan he has in mind. A RWD affordable performance sedan, with what he calls a unique closure system to presumably improve practicality.