Ford Shifting Focus Away From Small Cars Towards SUVs And Pickups

Ford chief executive Mark Fields has admitted that the company is shifting its focus away from cars and towards SUVs and pickups on the back of customer demand.

Having confirmed the recent abandonment of small car production in the U.S. by 2018, Fields also told Automotive News that the firm will stop looking for ways to entice buyers into its cars and instead hone in on different segments of the market.

“You can only go so far in terms of trying to entice customers to purchase those kinds of products. We’ll focus on some of the segments where customers are migrating towards, whether it’s SUVs or pickup trucks, and we’re doing nicely there,” he said.

Although Ford won’t produce cars at its Michigan Assembly Plant beyond 2018, sources suggest that the facility won’t be closed and will instead be retooled to build the new Range pickup and next-generation Bronco.

So far in 2016, car sales have accounted for 28 per cent of the brand’s total vehicle sales in the U.S., down from 37 per cent of 2006. Nevertheless, Fields said that the brand won’t ditch its car models as it needs a full lineup of vehicles.

“You never know where consumer demand is going to go. We get questions of “Oh, why don’t you just get out of the car business?’ It’s important that we have a full lineup of vehicles, because you never know what’s going to happen with the economy with regulations, with customer preferences, and we want to be there for customers wherever they go. We’ll keep our car lineup very fresh,” he said.