Affordable New Cars? Ford's Promising 5 Of Them Before 2030 – CarBuzz
The Ford Motor Company did not invent the car. What Ford did invent was the affordable car. The mass assembly line made vehicle production dramatically more efficient and cost-effective, turning a car into a commodity that a person working on that assembly line could afford. Modern Ford has shifted from bringing transportation to the masses to bringing value to the shareholders.
Ford has largely axed its high-volume, affordable-car lineup, focusing on profit drivers such as the F-150 pickup, the Bronco SUV, the Expedition/Lincoln Navigator full-size SUVs, and commercial fleet vehicles. The Ford Maverick is the only blue oval vehicle that, at least nominally, starts under $30,000. Ford’s second-cheapest vehicle, the Escape crossover, is leaving the lineup. But Ford is not giving up on John Q. Everyman. The brand is promising an onslaught of new affordable cars.
That Ranchero trademark may be even more fitting than we thought…
Ford confirmed plans to add five new vehicles starting under $40,000 to its lineup by 2030. The brand did not confirm what specific cars that would be. But Ford Blue and Model e President Andrew Frick told Automotive News that the new vehicles would be “multi-energy” and would be new nameplates, not sportier or more off-road-oriented riffs on existing vehicles. “It will be across our lineup of cars, trucks, SUVs, vans, and it will be multi-energy,” Frick told Automotive News. “That’ll start to fill in the product side, but we have work to do to help affordability in the near term more tactically.”
Ford offering a $40,000 benchmark for affordability may be moving the goal posts a bit. Technically, it is relatively affordable. A starting MSRP under $40,000 would be more than 20% below the average transaction price for a new vehicle in the US. But it’s also a cop out on Ford’s part. Almost every new Ford vehicle has a nominal starting MSRP under $40,000. That list includes the F-150 pickup, which has more trim levels effectively priced above $60,000 than below it. One would expect almost any new Ford nameplate to start under $40,000.
Ford is set to ditch its only remaining PHEV in the US, but it needs to come up with a backup plan quickly rather than focus solely on EVs.
We already know two of these Ford vehicles will be trucks. One is the new $30,000 midsize electric truck on Ford’s universal EV platform, which CEO Jim Farley just offered a first glimpse of. Ford has trademarked the Ranchero nameplate, which may be used for this. In January, Ford also announced it would build a new, affordable combustion pickup at its Blue Oval plant in Tennessee, replacing the full-size electric truck Farley likened to “a Millennium Falcon with a back porch attached.” Both could serve double duty as compelling consumer products and fixtures for Ford’s Pro division fleet services.
Other new Ford vehicles should include multiple body styles from the Universal EV platform. Ford’s teaser for the platform included not just a pickup but two-row and three-row crossovers and a cargo van variant. Those could be the three other vehicles. On the more speculative front, Ford has also been fleshing out its Mustang and Bronco sub-brands. So, it’s possible one of the new vehicles could be, say, a combustion equivalent to the Mustang Mach-E crossover.
Source: Automotive News
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