A plan to export the FG Falcon to lucrative left-hand drive markets in China and the Middle East has been shelved.
Outgoing Ford Australia president Bill Osborne enthusiastically endorsed the idea during the launch of the FG Falcon last April, and declared his intention to campaign for it at the highest level in the company.
But at a media conference in Melbourne today Osborne – who departs Ford in September for a job outside the auto industry - confirmed that the plan had foundered.
“Frankly, we just couldn’t get there in time,” said Osborne. “It was about a three year program for us to get there.”
Back in April Osborne estimated the export potential of both FG and its locally-built technical close relation, the Territory SUV, was beyond 20,000 sales per annum.
Osborne
With local large car sales slumping, Osborne saw export as a vital way to sustain Ford as a local manufacturer. Both Toyota and Holden have substantial export programs.
The plan Osborne had in mind incorporated the left-hand drive conversion for FG into the work being done to adapt it to the new imported Duratec V6 petrol engine, which is due for local launch mid-2010.
Osborne said there were no export plans for Falcon within the current business period, which he defined as “five years”.
Effectively, that means any Falcon export program will have to wait until the next generation, which is due to be based on a global large car architecture rather than be a local Australian development.
Ford has yet to decide whether that architecture will be rear-wheel drive – as has been traditional for Falcon – or swap to front-wheel drive.
All that means Ford Australia must find alternate ways to keep its Broadmeadows assembly line rolling. It has previously announced Focus small car manufacture from 2011, and Osborne hinted that program is being extended.
“What we have done is expand the portfolio of vehicles that we are building at Broadmeadows, that is something that we can do quickly,” he said. “It will put the Australian business on sound footing for years to come.”
That sounds very much like Ford will expand its lineup of C1 architecture-based vehicles from Focus to build other variants such as the Kuga compact SUV.
Ford aims to build 40,000 Focus hatchbacks per annum for both domestic sale and export to the Asia-Pacific region.
Osborne made his comments during a media session with Ford’s global boss Alan Mulally, who was in Melbourne to meet with local management and sample the production version of the new Falcon.
For more on Mulally and his views on Ford’s local and global future watch out for Wheels' October issue, or stay tuned to the Web...