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Andrei Avarvarii
Andrei Avarvarii
Andrei Avarvarii
Ford’s chief of product development and purchasing, Hau Thai-Tang, spoke to investor representatives recently at the 2018 J.P. Morgan Auto Conference in New York. Hau told the audience that Ford is working to “evolve” the One Ford plan devised by ex-CEO Alan Mulally more than a decade ago. The original One Ford blueprint cut the number of Ford’s global architectures from 30 to nine. Now the automaker wants to cut that from nine down to five modular architectures. One of those platforms will serve the imminent Focus Active, and that crossover will share its Focus underpinnings with the crossover being called the “Baby Bronco.”
The five platforms will be: a FWD/AWD unibody, a RWD/AWD unibody, a RWD/AWD body-on-frame, a commercial van unibody, and a unibody structure for pure electric vehicles. The aim of the rationalization is to cut $25.5 billion in expenses in the coming five years, improve local and regional scale, and shave 20 percent off the time it takes to move a new vehicle idea from sketch to showroom. The automaker eyes $7 billion in savings just on engineering and product development.
Naturally, Hau didn’t identify specific products, but he said the small crossover would use “off-road positioning and imagery” (our rendering above envisions what could be), yet will get a premium price. Those two attributes would clearly distinguish the CUV from the EcoSport below and the Escape above, Some suspect that the Baby Bronco will actually wear the name Timberline or perhaps Maverick. If it does, that would help the extra-soft-roader escape a potential bashing from the Bronco II faithful; not that it would matter, though, since Ford could sell a ton of the little CUVs if it puts the right offering on the dealer floor. We’re waiting to find out if the Focus Active will get AWD, but the Baby Bronco seems a lock for the option, especially if it plans to lure the Jeep Compass or Renegade buyer.
The Ranger-based, body-on-frame big-boy Bronco is expected to bow sometime next year as a 2020 model. According to a Reuters source, the Baby Bronco “could debut in 2019 as a 2020 model” as well.
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