Ford was originally planning on commencing production of the Bronco Sport at its Hermosillo plant in Mexico on July 13th. But now, production has been delayed until September 7th as a result of the ongoing pandemic, reports Automotive News, citing sources supplier-side sources.
More colloquially known as the baby Bronco, the Ford Bronco Sport will be based on the Ford C2 platform shared with the 2020 Ford Escape, 2020 Lincoln Corsair, as well as the international-market 2019 Ford Focus. However, the Bronco Sport will look totally different from the Escape, with a vey upright, boxy design.
Power will come from a choice of two small-displacement, turbo-charged engines: Ford’s 1.5L I-3 Dragon engine will be the standard mill, while the ubiquitous Ford EcoBoost 2.0L I-4 will be optional. Both engines will likely be mated to Ford’s new 8-speed automatic transmission co-developed with General Motors. At launch, five trim levels will be on tap, including base, Big Bend, Outer Banks, Badlands, and First Edition.
We’ve already shown you parts of the interior in spy shots, and have recently provided more details about the layout of the cockpit, including the fact that it will be offered with a few bright accent colors.
In March, we got our best look yet at a completely-undisguised Ford Bronco Sport thanks to an internet leak, which showed the vehicle without any camouflage. The vehicle features very short front and rear overhangs, blacked-out pillars, and a step-up in the roofline – making for quite a rugged-looking crossover.
Meanwhile, Ford’s original plan involved commencing production of the larger, body-on-frame Bronco in the beginning of the 2021 calendar year, but COVID-19 could end up pushing those plans back.
We’ll keep following both Bronco models and report back, so be sure to subscribe to Ford Authority for more Bronco Sport news, Ford Bronco news and around-the-clock Ford news coverage.
Comments
Why is the Bronco Sport being made in Mexico? No plants available in the US?
Very disappointed,
Ford.
Agreed. Shame they couldn’t roll it off with its platform mate in Louisville KY. I really like it but will not buy a vehicle not built in Canada or US.
The armchair CEOs are at it again,
I see.
Let me breaks it down for you: Ford is a for-profit company and will produce products where it makes sense to maximize return for its investment. All decisions are based around that.
Labor is cheaper in Mexico while quality is identical to that of the USA. Also, Mexico doesn’t have a corrupt mafia called the UAW interfering with operations. Any further questions?
If it shares a platform with the escape, wouldn’t it make sense to have them in the same plant, same with the ranger and big bronco?
Joe – there are many other factors that play into decisions surrounding production besides platform/plant sharing.
Probably the biggest one as it relates to the Bronco Sport is that demand for crossovers continues to grow (COVID-19 impact notwithstanding). As such, the Escape and Corsair need all the capacity they can get at Louisville, enabling Ford to meet demand. The same scenario holds true at Hermosillo for the Bronco Sport – it needs as much capacity as possible given that demand will likely be very healthy.
Keeping all that in mind, I have reason to believe that it was more cost effective to build another line to build a C2-based vehicle in Hermosillo than it was to invest in expanding capacity significantly at Louisville… plus mitigating whatever stoppage of production to make that expansion.
The story is different for the Michigan Assembly Plant (MAP) where the Ranger is built. Even with the Ranger, MAP is under-utilized. Bringing the “regular” Bronco there should move utilization levels to healthy/healthier levels, and an expansion will not be necessary.
Those are just the things I have heard through the grapevine.
Let me break it down for you: if they decide to build it in a third world country that undercuts American/Canadian wages – I WONT BUY IT. I have never and will never encourage that.
That’s part of the reason why one of the cars in my drive way is a Camry and not a Fusion. The Camry was THE top US part content midsize that year and assembled in KY while the Fusion is Hecho en Mexico. Toyota doesn’t seem to have any issues being a for-profit company while building their volume sellers in the US and Canada. In fact, they seem to be better at the whole profit thing than Ford ever has been.
So if you don’t care, buy this SUV. I won’t. If anything I’ll take the Escape, or the RAV4.
That’s all good and great, but do keep in mind the following stats:
– For every blue collar / manufacturing job, 3 supporting jobs are created.
– For every white collar / office job, 5 supporting jobs are created.
Given that your Camry is developed primarily in Japan and that the profit made by Toyota from the sale of your Camry in the U.S. goes back to Japan, your purchase ultimately helps Japan more.
I see what you are saying and generally I prefer North American brands with US/Canadian manufacturing.
That said the profit doesn’t “go back to Japan”. Toyota (or any company) doesn’t keep all their profit under Mr. Toyota’s mattress in Tokyo. It either goes in shareholder pockets (who can be anywhere), or is re-invested in operations (such as new factories). When you look at new factories being built in North America, Toyota in the last 10-20 years seems to have been building them in the US and Canada steadily… The Big 3 seem to want to close factories here to the benefit of Mexico and, lately, China *puke* (looking at you GM, but even Ford wanted to import the Focus Active from there before tariffs iced that plan).
Well, on the topic of where Toyota’s profit goes, the lion’s share ultimately gets repatriated back to Japan. Like you said, it does not reside under Mr. Toyoda’s mattress, but it is used to pay for bonuses for the thousands of employees (any collar) that Toyota has around the world. Given that Toyota has significantly more employees in Japan than in North America, Japan benefits the most. At the end of the day, only a small share stays in the U.S. to benefit American workers and families… and even less winds up in shareholder pockets (as a result of a dividend, which isn’t anything to write home about).
On the topic of the Big 3 moving production outside the U.S. to the likes of Mexico, it’s only a natural chain of events. The Japanese automakers get bailouts and other forms of support from their government on a regular basis. In addition, the Japanese government is much more active in paying for various worker benefits that employee and/or the employer would be stuck paying for in the U.S.
Then there’s the UAW, which Ford must deal with in the U.S. – the key market for Ford, as it’s the only country that consistently delivers favorable results and ultimately keeps the entire company afloat. The UAW is anything but favorable to any of its “partners” at the Big 3, including Ford.
Just a few months ago, GM suffered a 40 day-long strike at the end of 2019, and the union didn’t really win anything. But they did cost GM $3 billion in potential profit during that timeframe. It would have happened to Ford if it were first in line in negotiations, but GM was first in the 2019 round… so it suffered the most.
At the end of the day, I posit that if the UAW were not around, there would not be such a thing as a Ford imported into the U.S. from Mexico.