As it continues to deal with supply chain constraints amid a major electrification push, Ford is also working to simplify its operations and boost profit. As a result, fewer new vehicle configurations are landing on dealer lots, with inventory consisting of better-selling combinations of models and features, while Blue Oval vehicles in general will sport fewer configurations moving forward, as Ford Authority reported back in June. Regardless, CEO Jim Farley still believes that the automaker’s existing Ford Blue ICE lineup is too complex, as he discussed while speaking on the automaker’s Q2 earnings call recently.
“We do have a fresh lineup. We have lots of cool ideas, but we’re not satisfied with that because we cannot just continue to build this complexity in our business,” Farley said. “So, as we add those derivatives, we’re going to have to, you know, we are planning much less complexity in our Blue business, and that is a theme that will run through Blue for years to come.”
These comments by Jim Farley echo those made by CFO John Lawler just a couple of months ago, and come as no real surprise given some of the moves the automaker has made in recent months. In fact, as Ford Authority reported back in March, the Ford F-Series lineup may even be dropping some cab configurations in the future as fewer customers opt for regular cab pickups or even SuperCab models.
More recently, the Ford F-150 lineup has been simplified for 2023 in a number of ways, as Ford Authority has reported over the past few weeks. The range-topping Limited trim is only available as a hybrid with four-wheel drive for 2023, while the Tremor is dropping its 400A Standard configuration for the new year, a move that also affects the Raptor, which is no longer available with the less expensive 800A Standard Equipment Group.
We’ll have more on Ford’s ICE strategy soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 Ford news coverage.
Comments
CANNOT WAIT TO SEE WHAT THE POWER GRID WILL BE LIKE IN A FEW SHORT YEARS. OH AND THEY ARE MOSTLY POWERED WITH FOSSIL FUELS,COIL GAS OR OIL. WHERE ARE THE SAVINGS TO THE ENVIRONMENT? THEY ALSO TAKE ALMOST FOSSIL TYPE FUEL TO PRODUCE AS THE ICE VEHICLES WILL USE IN A LIFETIME. CHECK OUT THE PRAGER UNIVERSITY REPORT . MICHAEL MOORE ALSO MADE A MOVIE ABOUT THIS THAT HAS BEEN SQUASHED .
Pretty soon Ford will go back to the adage that you can any color car you want as long as it’s black – (and an EV). All I hear from Ford is “cost cutting” and “increase profit” decisions. I guess the customer comes last. And if you need proof just look at the decision to change battery type in their EV – cheaper to make and less range instead of the battery that the vehicles were designed to have. It’s about profit for Ford foremost
Prager University? LoLoLoLoLoL Your credibility is nonexistent.
Keep being a dinosaur
We will buy ICE vehicles till the idiots running companies stop making them and then there is also classic cars which have more character than and Mach E.
Almost sounds like he longs to go back to how things were in the early 1930’s; four body styles and one engine for them all. You could get a coupe, roadster, sedan or pickup with a four cylinder engine and three speed standard transmission.
What’s wrong with gas?
Charles Simple. 1) Please don’t submit comments in all caps, it is considering shouting. Is that what you want? 2)When you say “coil” do you mean coal? 3) Prager “university” is not an accredited university, they even say that. They are a conservative organization that makes videos. 4) Michael Moore’s film was initially taken down because of disinformation supplied in the film, it was later re-posted. 5) Your point that we should consider that fossil fuels are often used to produce electricity for the grid is noted and true. 6) The difference is that electricity doesn’t have to be made with fossil fuels and increasingly isn’t. The U.S. Energy Information Agency published that last year renewables such as wind and solar supplied 20.1% of power generated in the U.S. and it is rapidly rising. Interestingly, in Iowa last year, 57% of the power was made with renewables, almost exclusively wind power. Quite impressive. 6) In our household we plan to get electric vehicles to replace our internal combustion powered vehicles in the near future. We have had solar installed at our home since 1999. We intend to power the vehicles by adding enough solar panels to supply all of the electricity for our home and electric vehicles. 7) Go do a test drive of an electric vehicle, they are a delight to drive. You would enjoy having one and to boot not have to be ripped off by Big Oil.
It was only produced by Michael Moore and it raised a lot of factual criticisms of the EV scam. The “disinformation” claims come from the same green utopia con-artists that still push blatant lies such as “97% of scientists agree that humans are the cause of climate change”. EV might work for some people where there are actually enough chargers and they never plan on driving long distances, but for the majority of Americans EV’s have garbage range and are significantly more expensive than gas powered equivalents. Until a car company can offer a midsized SUV with AWD that can offer a 350+ mile range in the summer *OR* winter and sell for a price under $35k, the electric car push is broken deal. Even the Ford Lightning shows just what a joke EV’s are. 100 mile recharging intervals is insanely bad. Nobody cares about 0-60 times when they are that limited on range (which is even more miserably low in the winter). They will be irate when even just a 20% conversion from gasoline to electric overloads the grid, causes rolling blackouts (now common in CA and parts of TX, and OH), and causes electric rates to jump 300% or more. Ripped off by “big oil”? We’re getting ripped off by globalist puppets elected into office by liberals that have never worked an honest day in their lives. Renewable electricity is a scam. Intermittent and completely incapable of reliable base load. Nobody ever mentions that for every MW of installed solar or wind, it has to be accompanied by another MW of natural gas electric generation. Heating homes in the winter is about to become extremely expensive as households have to compete with natural gas power plants fed by 18″ gas lines.
Wow, talk about disinformation!
“EV scam” : 20% of new vehicles sold in China and Europe are EVs. 5% in U.S. but rapidly increasing. Ford is sold out of their Lightning F150 and Mach E for two years. Ford increased production of the Lightning from 20,000 per year initial production to 80,000 and now 150,000. Mach E production being increased to 200,000 per year. Apparently people in the U.S. don’t agree with your scam claim.
“97% of scientists agree that humans are the cause of climate change”: True statement.
“for the majority of Americans EV’s have garbage range”: The Lightning has a range of 230 miles with the standard battery pack and 320 with the extended range pack according to actual testing done by the EPA.
“Renewable electricity is a scam. Intermittent and completely incapable of reliable base load”: Tell that to the people of Iowa where 57% of the electricity in the state is made using wind power alone and Iowa is now a net exporter of power to national grid or to NV Energy (Nevada) where the utility is set to drop their last coal fired power plant and instead are adding three large battery storage units along with two large solar farms to take care of base load. The great thing about solar is that it provides power when most needed, i.e. in the afternoon and early evening. The battery storage is icing on the cake, not to mention that solar and wind are now the cheapest ways to make electricity!
“blackouts in Texas”: largely due to poor governance by conservatives. Their power grid is not connected to the national grid from which they could have drawn power during high usage times. The 300% jump in power costs were due to Texas’ poor planning and execution of their grid. Consumers were then forced to buy power at the “market rate”! Blame Governor Abbott for that, and the deaths that occurred during the freezing winter. I am sure they will do much better when they secede from the U.S.
“liberals that have never worked a day in their lives”: At least they work way more than conservatives.
Seriously talk to blue collar people in the renewable energy business, the polution created to make and Install wind turbines far exceeds their output and is still a positive polluter, solar.panels need batteries the pollution created mining the lithium, cobalt etc. then you have disposal, when not recyclable any more they will sit in a landfill for millenia, your substituting one pollution for another, at least with ICE Pollution levels can be lowered or almost zero with hydrogen, then you have the grid, California can not handle the current load it has, when Texas froze almost all of its renewable energy sources were broken forcing them to fireup the fossils fuels plants. Evs might have a range of 400 miles in good conditions but waitin 4 hours to charge is the problem Had to drive 1100 miles to get my Kid from college because they were sending everyone home in 24 to 36 hours a trip that took 16 hours would have taken 24 plus even the fast chargers have issues now because the grid is not ready. But you know what if they crash the grid it will be a blessing since people now a days need a lesson on what is important and how to survive without a phone or internet for a few days but that will be blamed on the greedy EV makers
Well, “Joe” you again perpetuate falsehoods about what actually happened in Texas. “Governor” Abbott and his henchmen at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas which runs the grid in Texas are grossly negligent.
Here is the quote from Wikipedia, “State officials including Republican governor Greg Abbott[13] initially blamed[14] the outages on frozen wind turbines and solar panels. However, data showed that failure to winterize power sources, like wind turbines and natural gas infrastructure, had caused the grid failure.[15][16] Texas’s power grid has long been separate from the two major national grids to avoid federal oversight, though it is still connected to the other national grids and Mexico’s;[17] the limited number of ties made it difficult for the state to import electricity from other states during the crisis.[18] Deregulation of its electricity market beginning in the 1990s resulted in competition in wholesale electricity prices, but also cost cutting for contingency preparation.[18]
The crisis drew much attention to the state’s lack of preparedness for such storms,[19] and to a report from U.S. federal regulators ten years earlier that had warned Texas[20] that its power plants would fail[21] in sufficiently cold conditions. Damages due to the cold wave and winter storm were estimated to be at least $195 billion,[5] likely the most expensive disaster in the state’s history.[22] According to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the Texas power grid was “seconds or minutes away from” complete failure when partial grid shutdowns were implemented.[23] During the crisis, some energy firms made billions in profits, while others went bankrupt, due to some firms being able to pass extremely high wholesale prices ($9,000/MWh, typically $50/MWh) on to consumers, while others could not, as well as this price being held at the $9,000 cap by ERCOT for allegedly two days longer than necessary; creating $16 billion in unnecessary charges.[24][25] ”
Because of Texas’ gross negligence, hundreds of people died. I would note that had they hardened their natural gas and wind power infrastructure this would have never happened. By the way, that is easily done with wind power. For example, you never read of Iowa’s wind infrastructure going down in the winter. That state’s wind infrastructure supplies 57% of their power.
You sir are a breath of fresh air and obviously smart enough to do your own honest research. I am willing to bet most critics of EVs have never driven one. I did and bought a Mach E.
No regrets and no more hard earned money spent on overpriced gasoline, oil, filters, spark plugs, exhaust systems and all the rest of the ICE parts that wear out or fail too soon.
Charles Stemple. Sorry I misspelled your name.
He says that as Ford introduces multiple ST-Line, Tremor, Timberline, Rattler, and Heritage packages across different models.
LOL, yes, I noticed the same thing…
Has Ford finally realized they don’t need 7 gas engined SUVs?
Ditch the Escape, it’s basically in the same segment as the Bronco Sport.
Ditch the Edge, it’s redundant.
Ditch the Explorer. Not a huge seller, and the Bronco can fill that gap.
EcoSport? Hmm…probably ditch that too.
Expedition? Needs a major revamp, not just a refresh.
So at the end of the day, Bronco Sport, Bronco, Expedition.
But Bronco doesn’t need 9 trim levels. Ditch 4 of them.
While we’re at it, eliminate the 4 cylinder Mustang.
F150? Platinum, King Ranch, Limited are all basically the same. Lose two of those packages.
Super Duty. Same thing.
There. I’ve just simplified the ICE production lines.
You’ve obviously never driven a Bronco. They are terrific trucks, but definitely NOT for every day driving – ask a Jeep Wrangler owner. They are not a comfortable drive for extended periods – the Explorer and Edge do a much better job of that. The Escape is not anywhere as nice as the Bronco Sport, but it is considerably cheaper… needs to stay also.
I actually work for a Ford dealer. Fleet Sales Manager. I’ve driven a Bronco or two.
I may have been a little over enthusiastic in “my” revamp of Ford’s lineup. In thinking about it, Explorer should probably stay.
I still say the Ecosport, Escape, and Edge need to go. Escape and Edge owners will find their way into a Bronco Sport or Explorer.
And the I still say the Bronco and truck lineups have too many model choices.
The edge yeah but you need a low price suv like the Escape to go against the Rouge, Traxx etc
the explorer sells thousands of units every year to PDs everywhere.
I have to agree with Jim Farley about the lineup having way more vehicles than are needed. I somewhat agree with @Dan who has a simplification list in the comments. I have an even simpler list than what any of them have.
Ford needs really five powertrain families.
2.3L Ecoboost
3.0L Ecoboost family
3.5L Ecoboost family
Electric powertrains
7.3L Powerstroke
If the badge says Lincoln, it should be electric, no ifs ands or buts about it.
Ford Lineup
Mustang
the Mach E abomination thing
Bronco
Ranger
Expedition
F150 family
Truth be told there is no reason for any of the smaller SUVs as the Mach E pretty much encompasses all of them in one ugly, electric package. Eliminating the need for any FWD powertrain, saving a ton of money in several different bad as usual Ford Products, Scrap the EVOs before you even get started. Just dont do it. Better yet, just call it the Mach-S and degrade the Mustang name even moreso than the regular Mach E.
Mustang coupe/convertible. Let the Coyote/Predator/V8 die completely. It’s not needed. Seriously, the 2.3L Ecoboost can make 330hp as a base car, the 3.0L Ecoboost non hybrid makes 400hp/415tq, the 3.5L HO can make 450hp/510tq, the 3.0L Ecoboost hybrid makes 494hp/630lb-ft of torque, the 3.5L supercar setup makes something like 660hp or something like that. At no point is the Coyote V8 needed. let it die.
Bronco: Retro-cool and somewhat ugly all at the same time, needst to be a bit longer so it can have a larger cargo area but other than that it’s a decent Ford Product (only because it’s Australian). Give it more six-cylinder ecoboost options and it’d be fine.
Ranger: Again, cool because it’s not an American Ford and American Ford’s mostly suck! (Minus the F150) More ecoboost options and the truck would be fine.
F150: Needs less trim levels, Work truck level, mid grade level, luxury level, raptor. Drop the Raptor R and do a hybrid version of the 3.5L Ecoboost
Super Duty: Needs to move to electric only
Electric only in the Super Duty?!
There’s no way that will happen any time soon. An F150 Lightning, which is a light duty truck gets around 500km of range. Add a 6000lb trailer, and that drops in half, if not more.
A Super Duty, that is built to tow heavy loads, and carry heavy loads, and actually work would be lucky to get 100 miles out of any battery pack that could go in there. And in the winter months? Having to work and tow? 50 mile range maybe?
Electric Super Duty is a long way off. Hybridization would make far more sense at this stage.
Super Duty is the worst choice to be electric. Have you not seen any towing videos? Plowing with electric? Hello?
So vbondjr1, what’s the rest of us supposed to drive? Are people who can’t get around as well as they used to supposed to go out and buy a truck? Bring a step-stool with you to get in your vehicle. Seems like that’s all Ford will end up building are trucks or ‘truck like’ vehicles. They’ll make one car, a Junkstang Mach E, at $850 per month lease?? I looked at the Bronco Sport. It’s small. Less room in the back than what my Escape had. That’s why I leased an Edge. Perfect size, but that’ll be going bye-bye. Public won’t buy these vehicles because they’ve looked the same for 6 years. People like change every once in a while.
Don’t forget the 5.0 V8 Coyote a magnificent engine.
After 46 fords I am done with fomoco, Jim farley can LMB!
It’s unfortunate that Ford wants to eliminate the regular cab. Maybe it’s because the marketing people push the crew cabs. Also who can reasonably use a 5.5 foot box? I had regular cab F150 S for the last 40 years and have enjoyed driving them
In case people don’t know, there are literally thousands of used Prius vehicles for sale at rock bottom prices. The reason: Once someone buys and drives an EV, they soon live the EV drawbacks and shortcomings. This being primarily the hassle of short range,no long range trips, and sparse charging stations. This entire EV revolution will not become what the government predicts nor what Jim Farley projects to the bottom line @ Ford. Government subsidies today are the backbone of the EV sales numbers.
I’m pretty sure the Prius is a hybrid, not an EV.
My brother has a Ford Lightning. I can’t make the switch yet but I would go to a plug in hybrid F150.
In about 20 years, gasoline will be difficult to find…diesel still around for large trucks. Today is a repeat of 1920, when the horse and buggy industry was just starting to notice the Model-T was eating away their sales. History is about to repeat.
big three have been wanting to reduce options for last 30 years. but they can’t because customers demand it. 20 years ago they made a big deal on flexible manufacturing. Did they give up on that?
Ok here’s an idea. Use 3 different oil and air filters across the lineup. Small, medium, large. Magazines pan the manufacturers for parts binning stuff. Screw them, parts bin the hell out of the lineup. I want the interior to be familiar in every model. Use buttons where we expect buttons and digital display where we’d expect it. We don’t need 6 little LED screens dispersed around the car, 2 is enough. Trim packages make ford $$$ so they sure aren’t getting rid of those. Let us customize our base models out of a parts catalog or factory order system like the bronco.
If Ford continues to make their vehicles less diverse and with smaller ICE engines I will buy a different brand the next time I am in the market for a new car. Ford wants to be Toyota without the quality.
Farley is destroying Ford from the inside out, get rid of him he’s not really a car man. Should be selling mobile phones. Going to fast into electric and breaking the ice division down is going to rip the company in half.