The Australian Blue Oval lineup has expanded in a major way over the past few years, even as models like the Ford Ranger and Everest continue to dominate the automaker’s market share in that country. Thus, one may find it reasonable to assume that FoMoCo would keeping adding existing models that aren’t sold in Australia currently to that lineup, given the success of similar moves. However, it seems as if two of its SUVs – the Ford Explorer and Ford Expedition – won’t be joining that lineup, at least, anytime soon.
According to CarExpert, The Blue Oval doesn’t currently plan to bring the Ford Explorer or Expedition to Australia, even though there is some demand for those models, and GMC is set to sell the Yukon there in Q2 2025. The problem, it seems, is that it’s quite expensive and oftentimes complicated to convert these models to right-hand drive, as we’ve already seen with the Ford F-150.
“For us, it’s our job then to go, of all those wants, is there a market in Australia that makes a business case work? When you think about Australia and what customers are using their vehicles for, we think [the Everest’s] footprint is the right one,” said Ford Australia marketing director Ambrose Henderson. “Not only do you want to carry a bunch of stuff and go 4×4-ing, but you also need to go to Coles and get the shopping, and parking cars that are significantly bigger than [the Everest] is much more challenging. So we don’t have any product news to share today, and we continue to assess all of the product we have globally and whether it makes sense for us.”
The complexity and costs of converting existing vehicles to right-hand drive has thus far stopped Ford from adding a number of models to its Australian lineup – including the Ford Bronco Raptor and F-150 Raptor – though the automaker has stopped short of completely ruling out any of these moves. FoMoCo has stated that it won’t be selling the all-electric Puma Gen-E or the high-performance Ford Mustang GTD in that country, however.
Comments
The only ways these 2 vehicles can be sold in Australia is for them to be built in Australia, which is unlikely given the substantial investment required to build a factory in Australia.
They had a factory in Australia when they built the Falcon and used to sell 100,000 a year, no foresight whatsoever. No wonder the Japanese make a killing, selling all those corn beef tins.