The Ford F-150 is poised for an official 2023 launch in Australia, despite a launch timeline that has been plagued by ongoing supplier issues. After all, Ford Australia is considered an integral part of The Blue Oval’s future, and the automaker has no plans to bow out of the market anytime soon. However, obviously Australian roads require right-hand drive vehicles, leaving some to ponder if the F-150 will be built with that configuration. The automaker recently reiterated its commitment to right-hand drive vehicles in Australia and other global markets, according to CarExpert.
“We’re not walking away from right-hand drive. We know they’re important. We may go about doing it a bit differently,” Ford chief financial officer John Lawler said on the matter. He did acknowledge, however, that producing right-hand drive vehicles can pose a bit of a financial challenge, but that doesn’t rule out the possibility of building specialty vehicles to answer demand.
RMA Automotive will remanufacture the Ford F-150 as a right-hand drive pickup, and will work closely with The Blue Oval throughout the process. That means they will carry a factory warranty, unlike vehicles that were converted to right-hand drive by third-party outfits.
Other vehicles on the horizon for the Australian market include five electric vehicles by 2024. While The Blue Oval has yet to confirm all EVs that are headed for the Oceanic country, the automaker has since outlined that the Ford Mustang Mach-E and the Ford E-Transit will be part of the lineup.
Meanwhile, the Ford Bronco will soon launch in Europe in very limited quantities in response to the SUV’s popularity in the U.S. However, there are currently no plans to offer the Bronco in Australia, right-hand drive or not, although The Blue Oval has not completely written off the idea. In a similar vein, the F-150 is also headed for Europe for the 2023 model year, first landing in Germany before branching out to other countries.
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Comments
More of a question. Do you make right hand drive Mustang GT for Thailand. I’ve been told Ford here in Thailand does the change as one of the reasons it costs 3 times as much as stateside. I have a GT premium performance package 1 on order, out in the ocean on a ship somewhere and arriving sometime next month, maybe. Never plan on anything over here, all plans like mice and men soon go astray.
Not sure if it’s possible but maybe would have been simpler to buy one in Australia and ship it to you.
I probably would but that is apparently how they get here. The best thing about it is they are actually built in the sates, not put together here like the trucks and cars. Thais make the vehicles look good and they often are, for about a year…lol. I’ve looked and probably Australia is going to be the place my speed shop will get parts from, shipping should be less, customs…….? Singapore is a choice for a few. I bought fishing rods from there but shipping is still expensive. Shipping from the states, whew, expensive and customs will definitely take a bite plus many stainless header manufactures’ don’t make headers for right hand drive. Some do and they ship to and are available in Australia. Thailand can be a real pain in the hind end sometimes.
Disagree – RHD is Not important, only 30% of the world drives on the wrong side…
But they love paying the extra expense for the chance to do so!
Ps, like the Holy Roman Empire that was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire, the Silent Majority was neither silent (sadly), nor a majority; but it made up gor that by being a catchy marketing line tho.
With all respect to my Aussie friends, the Australian market is not as big as many that drive on the ‘correct’ (not the right) side of the car. The UK, Japan, Indonesian all have a lot more people and potential buyers.