Ford is going to make a new “affordable” vehicle by the year 2022 to replace all the affordable vehicles they no longer produce.
Last year, Ford announced the death of the car. That meant that 2019 would be the last model year for the Fusion, Taurus, Focus, and Fiesta. After that, you’ll be able to buy whatever cars they still have in their inventories, but Ford factories would only be making trucks and SUVs so there would be no replacements.
This also meant that there would be nothing in the Ford lineup for under $20,000. The cheapest vehicle they have is the EcoSport, a tiny crossover that still requires you to spend at least $21,090 after destination fees.
Unfortunately, America is still very much a car nation and people need cheap cars just to get around. While cheap cars might not command much in terms of profit margins, relinquishing an entire market segment sends an off message to Ford’s customers.
Ford realizes that not making a cheap car defies their “everyman” marketing message, but they’ve got a solution. Speaking at an automotive conference in New York, Ford VP of enterprise product line management Jim Baumbick said that Ford would once again have an “affordable” vehicle in their lineup by the year 2022.
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"It's an example of how we're moving faster, working together differently and leveraging our five all-new flexible vehicle architectures," Ford told Automotive News in a statement. "We came up with the concept in just 12 weeks using our new product creation process. Previous all-new vehicles could have taken years of research before receiving approval."
Baumbick didn’t say just what sort of vehicle this would be, or what exactly Ford considers to be “affordable.” Most likely it will be a small crossover along the same lines as the EcoSport, although the subcompact crossover doesn’t seem like it could get any smaller.
We do know that Ford has plans to introduce a new unibody pickup truck by the year 2022 that will be smaller than the Ranger. This might be the affordable vehicle that Baumbick is referring to, although that seems like an unlikely scenario. Trucks currently command a premium over crossovers and regular sedans, and it seems doubtful that Ford would want to dilute their profit margins by making a small, cheap truck.