Ford CEO Jim Farley has expressed his distaste for two-row crossovers on many occasions over the years, largely because he doesn’t see that segment as a strength for the automaker. True to his word, we’ve since seen the Ford Edge wind up being discontinued in North America, and after Farley hinted that the Ford Escape could be on the chopping block as well, its production at the Louisville Assembly plant will soon be replaced by an all-new mid-size EV pickup. Now, the executive is once again touching on his general dislike for two-row crossovers.
“Now is time to change the game once again. The new pickup built here in Louisville, is going to cure a lot of problems, like all those generic, two row crossovers that dominate our industry,” Farley stated at Ford’s recent unveiling of its new universal EV platform, which will underpin the new mid-size EV pickup when it enters production in 2027. Perhaps ironically, the executive made these comments at the Louisville plant, where Ford current produces the Escape and Lincoln Corsair – both two-row crossovers.
Following these comments, Farley also mentioned a rival two-row crossover when speaking about the forthcoming mid-size pickup, saying that it will have “more passenger space than the latest Toyota RAV4 – with a frunk and a bed.” The RAV4 has long reigned as the top-seller in the mainstream C-segment crossover space in the U.S., too – moving 239,451 units in the first half of 2025, more than the Escape (82,589 sales) and Bronco Sport (72,438 sales) combined, and then some.
In addition to not being a big fan of two-row crossovers, Farley has also expressed disdain for what he calls “boring” vehicles on several occasions over the years – noting that the automaker is “getting out of the boring-car business and into the iconic-vehicle business,” with vice president of advanced product development, Jim Baumbick, adding “we’re not trying to make toasters on wheels.”
Closing the week at $11.44 per share.
Special lease deals in select markets offered on refreshed compact pickup truck.
A potentially useful idea for one good reason.
A well-kept example of the discontinued sedan.
The third-most of any market it's present in.
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So, the Toyota RAV4 sold 234K so far this year and the Honda CRV sold 212K. For boring 2 row SUVs, Ford would love to have these sales numbers. People are not going to buy enough EVs to replace the lost 100K in Edge sales and the 150K the Escape which is going away produces each year.
Perhaps, per Farley, the salespeople at the Dealership can use their "selling skills" to get Escape customers into the new EV pickup like they can-per Farley again- get Edge customers into a Mach E 🙄
And for this brilliance we pay Farley $24 million per year in salary and bonus.
He has shown us over and over he will abandon profitable and large market segments just to push his own personal agenda. If he doesn't like it, you can't have it.
Sorry, Jim - we'll go elsewhere where car companies actually know how so spell "customer".
So many CEOs and politicians these days are insane and Farley is right up there. One of these vehicle types has absolutely nothing to do with the other, Jim.
Jim is like a cancer to Ford and no one in Ford family see that, this guy is so bad, so destructive ...
Dream on. If he does not know the difference between an ICE powered crossover (the segment Ford pioneered in the 1990s) and an EV pickup, Ford's in bigger trouble than I thought. How does this incompetent still have a job?
Remember that he said the same thing to then-current Fusion owners about the upcoming Maverick. Must have banged his head while auto racing.
Don't know what Farley is smoking but these comments are the most out of touch comments from Farley yet. Billion dollar Bill must be to busy playing with his train station to see the shambles the Ford Motor Company has become under Farley's inept control.
What's new with Junior. With the exception of Mulally, all his CEO picks have been failures.
When my lease is up in 2027, i'm not replacing my 2024 Edge by a pickup truck, and even less so with an electric pickup truck.
I will have to find myself another boring two-two SUV from another manufacturer.