Ford CEO Jim Farley and his executive team are currently throwing their collective weight towards electrifying most of The Blue Oval’s global product offerings. Aside from the massive $50 billion expenditure involved with such a monumental task, a number of substantial organizational changes have, or are scheduled to take place in the coming years. As Ford Authority previously reported, part of the Ford+ plan involves splitting the automaker into many different slices, with Ford Blue and Ford Model e being responsible for internal combustion and fully electric vehicle development, respectively. Since battery electric vehicles aren’t expected to generate profits anytime soon, Ford is looking for ways to cut costs, and dramatically reducing available options on future Ford vehicles is one path the company is apparently ready to walk down, according to a key executive.
While answering a question about The Blue Oval’s ability to deliver on its $3 billion cost reduction commitment at the 2022 Deutsche Bank Auto Industry Conference, Ford CFO John Lawler was pretty forthright about how future Ford vehicles may be packaged later on in the decade. “If you start to look at the things we’re doing around that, we could reduce the number of consumer options by 80 percent to 90 percent in many of our vehicles without sacrificing sales. That’s the key part. It’s just too complex and it’s just been the mindset that has been around the industry for way too long that you need the complexity to actually satisfy the consumer. Now, there’s a smarter way to do it.”
As Ford Authority previously reported, some of those changes are already taking place, with the chip shortage being the main culprit behind dealer lots being deliberately stocked with the most popular vehicle configurations. Going forward, more dramatic changes to future Ford vehicles could result in entire body styles being dropped from specific vehicle lineups too. Lisa Drake, a vice president at Ford, stated that the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning pickup’s single bed and cab configuration enormously benefitted the company from a manufacturing standpoint and hinted that those benefits could make their way to gas vehicles underneath the Ford Blue umbrella, based on the popularity of the electric pickup and essentially nonexistent criticism for only offering one SuperCrew model. Dropping entire nameplates from the lineup is a possibility too, as Farley recently suggested that the Ford Escape is facing the chopping block amid the ongoing EV pivot.
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Comments
All electric is another woke idea. We don’t have the infrastructure to support electric vehicles. Green will not meet today’s needs never mind 200,000,00 + vehicles. Electricity prices will skyrocket. Rationing will be put in place. The government will tell you if, when, where you can go. This is Communist China. Resist. We need ICE vehicles for a long time. Don’t let them take away more of your freedoms.
I do notice that you believe you should attack people who don’t agree with you. I see your intellectual void in trying to denigrate all see who you are. Psychoanalysis is advised along with a script for Lexapro, and up all doses of your medications.
Less options, like getting any vehicle any color you like, as long as it’s black. Eliminating vehicles that are not electrified and limiting options. Sounds like a winning formula.
Just another way to compel purchase of a $6,000 “package” to get that one desired $550 item you want.
In autumn of 1992, long before the internet, long before computer-aided manufacturing, my brother ordered a new 1963 Studebaker Lark 2-door sedan. AM pushbutton radio, check. heater (not yet standard), check. Red paint, check. 3.90:1 Twin-Traction axle? Check. Four on the floor? Check. R2 supercharged V8 engine? Check. One or two other items? Check. The dealer, Danyluck Motors of Glendale California, took his deposit, put the order form in an envelope, and mailed it to factory. Eight weeks or so later, his new Studebaker arrived.
The previous year, my mother ordered a Pontiac Tempest at Utter Pontiac in Los Angeles. Black, convertible top, 4 on the floor, performance axle, 4-cylinder but with the four barrel carburetor and high compression. AM pushbutton radio, heater. Same thing: they took the deposit, sent the order away by mail, and the car arrived in about six weeks.
No mandatory packages. No moving up an entire model level just to get the package that had the one item you wanted.
I meant 1962.
You can have it (Model T) in any color you want, as long as it’s black. Henry Ford
If you look at some of Ford’s competitors such as Toyota, they are already doing this. As a consumer I don’t necessarily like this, I prefer having more choices, but what he seems to believe is it will not effect sales. Maybe he is right, but we will see. Consumers vote with their wallets.
too many combinations make manufacturing more costly because of complexity, more chances for errors, and nearly impossible for dealers to stock the vehicles people want. Ford has enough data: If customers a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, and i all want the same group of 10 options, put them in a package, and sorry Mr. j, if you only want one of those items, you have to buy the package. Honda has had limited options for decades, but are much more flexible with dealer installed options, making their cars much easier to customize to fit a customer’s needs.
Robert trying real hard to simp for Ford. Must have his checks signed by FMC. lol Get a life.
I took it as meaning they were going to package options into groups as all car manufacturers have been doing.
I have a 1955 Packard 400 -2 dr. Hardtop with torsion bar Suspension with a 352 cu. in. – 260 Hp. V-8 -4 barrel Carburetor with every option including 3 tone Paint under the seat heater, 4pt. Power seat, electric windows, Power Steering. Power brakes, Power antenna, Leather seats, Turquoise carpets, Rear foot rests . The car is loaded and was built to Order. Packard built this carwith Every option available > Guess what with a Warranty 3 mos. Or 40000 Miles In 2022 It is still running with 83,000 Miles on the Odometer . Packard is no Longer but the Packard Club operates with their Original Packard Test Track still there in Detroit.