{"id":369057,"date":"2026-04-08T06:05:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T06:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/369057\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T06:05:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T06:05:30","slug":"ford-ceo-says-no-more-generic-vehicles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/369057\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford CEO says ‘no more generic vehicles’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The separate markets and regions Ford serves can almost be treated as separate brands, such is the spread of products on offer globally.<\/p>\n

For example, the Mustang and F-150 have been mainstays of the North American region but have failed to do well elsewhere. Likewise the Focus and Fiesta were a success story for Europe, though they didn\u2019t sell in huge numbers globally.<\/p>\n

In the case of the latter two vehicles, they\u2019ve now disappeared from Ford\u2019s lineup entirely, leaving the world without a Ford Focus or Fiesta due to ever-decreasing demand in the passenger car market.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Top Gear<\/a> earlier this year, Ford CEO Jim Farley said the company\u2019s ambition is to have \u201cno more generic vehicles\u201d, ironically while citing the two models which were recently axed as examples of what customers want.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ford Focus ST<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very proud that [the] Puma is the bestselling vehicle in the UK. We shouldn\u2019t just walk past that,\u201d Farley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it\u2019s based on the Fiesta platform and when I ran Ford of Europe that was my car.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, I don\u2019t know how to simplify it other than to say we have the same aspiration in Europe with our EV strategy as we do anywhere, which is no more generic vehicles.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople loved Focus and Fiesta because they were affordable vehicles with great driving dynamics. They were not boring vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Ford Ranger Raptor<\/p>\n

Currently, Ford\u2019s European lineup consists of vans and people movers (Transit, Transit Custom, Tourneo), SUVs (Puma, Mustang Mach-E, Explorer, Capri), a ute (the Ranger, including a de-tuned Raptor), and the Mustang coupe.<\/p>\n

The demise of the Fiesta and Focus also took their hotter performance ST versions with them, while killing off any truly hot models Ford had on sale in Europe.<\/p>\n

Farley has previously expressed his desire to focus (pardon the pun) on interesting vehicles, saying in 2024 that the brand is about \u201cpassion projects\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of car companies, but what is going to make Ford different? And for me it\u2019s very simple: we don\u2019t make commodity products,\u201d Farley said at the 2024 Ford Performance season launch.<\/p>\n

\"FordImage credit: Rhys Vandersyde<\/p>\n

\u201cWe make products for people who work, and work with their hands, and we make passion products like Bronco and Mustang. And that\u2019s what we do at Ford, and when we\u2019ve gotten away from that formula, it hasn\u2019t worked out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want Ford to be a powerhouse when it comes to passion products and work products. No more boring products, and that\u2019s what this night is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ford\u2019s US division has its fair share of non-boring cars \u2013 think the Ranger, Bronco and F-150 Raptor, as well as the Mustang Dark Horse, Dark Horse SC and GTD \u2013 though the vast majority of its lineup isn\u2019t offered outside North America.<\/p>\n

In Australia, the Mustang and Ranger Raptor serve as the performance options of the lineup, while both the Ranger and related Everest are also offered in adventurous variants for off-roading buyers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The separate markets and regions Ford serves can almost be treated as separate brands, such is the spread…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-369057","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}