Ford puts front foot forward

FORD Motor Company president and chief executive officer Alan Mulally has confirmed the long-term production future of the Falcon large car in Australia, but has signalled that the next-generation model could be very different to the current one.

Speaking to a select group of media in Melbourne today after meeting with prime minister Kevin Rudd and industry minister Kim Carr yesterday, Mr Mulally said Ford had not yet decided whether its next large-car architecture, upon which the Falcon will be based, would be rear-wheel drive.

Ford is committed to developing one global platform for its large sedans, such as the Falcon in Australia and the Taurus in the US, and earlier this year global product chief Derrick Kuzak confirmed that a RWD large-car development plan was underway.

However, Mr Mulally yesterday revealed that the RWD program was in doubt when he was asked whether fuel economy concerns could see it be replaced with a front-drive or all-wheel drive architecture. “We haven’t decided that yet, but you are absolutely touching on the essence of it,” he said.

“Rear-wheel drive has some unique capabilities, but it will be yet to be determined whether we keep our unique rear-wheel drive or whether the bigger sedans will need to (be) all-wheel drive or front-wheel drive.”

Asked whether he had a preference for front or rear-wheel drive, Mr Mulally said: “No thoughts yet, it will be driven by what the customer wants and values and especially the fuel economy and the performance.”

After answering a series of questions about whether future Falcons would be RWD, Mr Mulally remarked: “You guys are obsessed with this front and rear-wheel drive.” Then he added: “The front-wheel drive and all-wheel drives are pretty spectacular and they are going to continue to get better.”

The FoMoCo chief insisted that Ford Australia’s product development centre would still have an important role to play in future large cars, even if they did not have the RWD basis that resonates so strongly among Australian car consumers and enthusiasts.

“It is the same product development centre whether it is rear-wheel drive or... that is just the piece of technology. We are going to be using our capabilities worldwide in small, medium and large vehicles no matter what – whether they are front-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive,” he said.

“As far as I can see, the expertise we have here in Australia we will utilise for as far as I can see into the future.”

Mr Mulally said there would continue to be a market for large cars such as the Falcon, even though sales were declining and small cars were becoming more of a focus for Ford.

“There will be a great market for them,” he said. “I think there will always be a Falcon size, I think there will always be an F150 (pick-up) size, I think there will be a Navigator (large SUV) size. Our best estimate of the market is that it will be about 60 per cent small, 25 per cent medium and about 15 per cent large, but each one of them are really important markets,” he said.

When asked about export potential for the Falcon, Mr Mulally indicated it could be sold around the world, but did not specify whether such a vehicle would be a Falcon or simply a Falcon equivalent that could be produced in the US.

“I think the Falcon is a dynamite vehicle first of all and there is going to be a significant market worldwide for the Falcon,” he said.

“Right now, the Falcon is for Australia. We also have an equivalent of the Falcon in the United States and around the world. Now, this leads us to the Ford plan going forward because clearly the real strategy of Ford is to bring together the intellectual capability, the assets of Ford worldwide.

“So part of our plan, we call it One Ford, is to leverage these assets so that over time we will have world-class vehicles in every market segment size including the larger vehicles, so that over time they will become global platforms and then the possibilities are endless because you get the scale up you get the volume up.”

Asked again about actual Falcon exports and when such a program might begin, Mr Mulally indicated that Ford may not necessarily export the Falcon but merely the engineering knowledge behind it – as is currently the case of the T6 Ranger ute being developed in Victoria.

“We aren’t going to go that far to say specifically when, but I think the story if you can capture it is that Ford is moving towards global platforms, the leadership clearly for large vehicles, and for the Ranger and now for the Focus is now going to be out of Australia which is great,” he said.

As if the prospect of a front-wheel drive Falcon was not enough for Australian car enthusiasts, Mr Mulally also indicated that Ford’s powertrain priorities centred on smaller boosted engines – such as those being built under the new EcoBoost program – moreso than V8s.

“As you know, there is a lot of opportunity to improve (the) internal combustion engine, especially with turbocharging and especially with direct fuel-injection, so I think we are going to continue to see V8s move to V6s, to V4s,” he said.

“You know, our EcoBoost strategy is to get them across all the vehicles to get the 20 to 25 per cent improvement in miles per gallon and also the 15 per cent reduction in CO2 and get them across all the vehicles as quickly as we can. And then you add that with the weight reduction and aerodynamics and the capability that it brings.

“The market will decide what (powertrain) it really values, but clearly it has to have a chance of using enabling technologies such as turbocharging, direct fuel-injection – these engines are phenomenal engines because as you know you get more torque at lower rpms whether it is manual or automatic, the driving experience with these things is even more exciting and I think the number one consideration right now is fuel prices and fuel economy.

“So I think we are going to continue to move to smaller engines, but we are not going to lose anything out of the performance.”

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