Ford Launches Electric Van, Hybrid SUV to Win Back Aussie Buyers
Synopsis
Ford unveils a new electric van and hybrid SUV, aiming to double its market coverage and fend off growing competition from Chinese car brands.
Key Highlights
- Ford is releasing a $50,000 all-electric Transit City van and hybrid Bronco Basecamp SUV.
- By doing so, the carmaker is set to double its market segment coverage in Australia over three years.
- Ford’s share dropped from third in the previous year to seventh among bestsellers in Australia (August).
- To compete with Chinese automakers, CEO Fadi Mawal is betting on service and reliability.
As Chinese car brands increasingly dominate new-car sales in Australia Ford is re-entering the local market with a pure electric Transit City van and hybrid Bronco Basecamp SUV to get back Aussie buyers as part of something broader.
According to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, the 123-year-old carmaker dropped to seventh place among Australia’s top-selling brands in August, down from third for the same month a year earlier. The Ranger utility remains the strongest-volume seller for the company.
Ford Australia president and chief executive Fadi Mawal, a former forklift driver who started at Ford in the 1990s, aims to double its market access segment coverage by three years hence and expand buyers as well.
New Models to Broaden the Ford Offering
The new electric Transit van, which has a starting price of $50,000, is an important part of its expansion plan as well as the Bronco Basecamp hybrid SUV that will be manufactured in China through Ford’s local joint venture with Jiangling Motors. Pricing has yet to be confirmed, but expect it to approach the $50s for the Bronco.
Mawal said Ford now competes in about 25% to 30% of the market, but plans to increase that share with a new product range over the coming years (to roughly 60%).
For a few examples, the Bronco Basecamp comes with an extended-height pop-top roof for additional headroom and air circulation, an interior that collapses into one that you could sleep in, a 7.5-litre hot and cold storage console, also serving as a downstream table stitched toward the rear entrance door. The hybrid powertrain features an electric motor and a 49 kWh battery as well as a range-extending-only turbocharged 1.5-litre petrol engine for a claimed 816–900 kilometres of line.
For the Transit City van, there’s a 56kWh battery and fast-charging capability of up to 87kW, allowing a charge from 10-80% in approximately 33 minutes. Targeted at urban delivery and commercial operators, it has a driving range of up to 380 kilometres, and is optimised as zero-tailpipe-emission transport.
Mawal said the new products are also critical to Ford’s overall brand health and performance, allowing it to capture a greater slice of the customer pie.
Competing With Chinese Automakers
Ford’s move comes as Chinese car brands have rapidly emerged in Australia, launching vehicles at aggressively low prices, often about half that of competitors’ models and with no tariffs to protect local players after the free trade agreement Australia inked with China in 2015.
For instance, Jaecoo sells a Range Rover-like J5 model priced from $25,990, whereas Ford no longer has an immediate equivalent since it stopped the popular yet small Puma and mid-sized Escape in favor of larger still unproven products. In fact, smaller lower-margin vehicles are likely to disappear comparatively quickly as the broad automotive world does not have much to make at these sizes any more.
Mawal believes that while price increases during the pandemic saw new cars priced out of reach for many, there’s another side to this, including driveaway pricing, and that’s car ownership.
Betting on Service and Reliability
Mawal said Ford was betting on service and reliability to keep it distinct from Chinese carmakers that have mostly deployed capital-light distribution strategies in which third-party partners handle vehicle importation, sales and servicing.
Ford, he said, doesn’t just look at price to shape its vehicles, the automaker wants to address customers’ needs for any use case, such as work, adventure or recreation. Ford, he added, isn’t about making “the cheapest trucks on the market,” but instead delivering strong capability, safety, technology and serviceability, along with a solid ownership experience.
The automaker has approximately 180 dealers and 220 service outlets in Australia, as well as an 810-hectare proving ground north of the You Yangs between Geelong and Melbourne where vehicles are tested to make sure they comply with Australian standards and conditions.
Over the past 10 years, Ford has invested around $5 billion just on R&D across Australia, Mawal said. As part of its 1,500-strong local workforce, the company still has some local engineers who assist with designs for vehicles including the Everest and Ranger. But Mawal said this local design work is not reflected in increased costs to the customer, and noted that delivering good capability, safety, technology and value are Ford’s priorities.
Work vehicles are exempt from emissions standards
Although Chinese manufacturers have been quick to bring electrified utes to market, such as claimed example hybrids from BYD and Chery destined for tradespeople and commercial buyers entering the Australian market on a tight timeline, Mawal said current technology was not suitable for meeting tougher emissions targets with heavier vehicles at this stage. Such vehicles have been temporarily excluded from the government plan to cut emissions.
Ford has spent 13 years as the second-biggest commercial vehicle brand in Australia. And Mawal cautioned that it would essentially carve a brand new expense on businesses like construction, trades, mining and farming if larger work vehicles must comply with the brand new emissions regulations.
Without better alignment, industry costs could be imposed elsewhere across the economy, he said, because emissions requirements were misaligned to enabling technology for heavy work vehicles in Australia.
Ford’s Broader Electrification Strategy
Last December, Ford disclosed a US$19.5 billion writedown on its investments to electrification, which included the cancellation of its electric F-150 Lightning pickup. Mawal, however, said the company’s fundamentals remain unchanged.
In addition, he noted that Ford is still committed to both battery electric and hybrid vehicles giving the consumers MORE choices. He said the writedown reflected slower-than-anticipated consumer adoption of electric vehicles, so Ford no longer required that much manufacturing capacity it had originally expected. Mawal did say, however, that the company’s broader plans haven’t changed as much, and that the pace of its electrification rollout has been slower than expected.
Source: StockHead
At Inspirepreneurs Magazine, covering entrepreneurship, business failures, and the human stories behind the world's most ambitious founders. She writes at the intersection of strategy and storytelling.
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