Ford US to increase full-size SUV production

By Tim Beissmann | January 12th, 2010

With all the morning’s news from Detroit having a distinct green tinge to it, the latest filthy, gas-guzzling announcement from Ford is somewhat refreshing.

Ford Motor Company in the US is about to significantly step up its production of full-size SUVs due to increasing demand and low supply from an industry shying away from the classic American tank.

Ford Americas President, Mark Fields, said inventory of the Ford Expedition was down to 31 days of supply in December and 24 days for the Lincoln Navigator, but resisted detailing specific production figures for the increased run.

A normal supply is generally considered 60 days.

Navigator sales shot up 60 percent last month to 1758, Expedition sales by 45 percent to 5556, and the smaller Ford Explorer also climbed 24 percent to 6612.

Ford said rental companies stayed away from big SUVs last year but believes they are back in a big way in 2010.

Mr Fields also revealed that the Lincoln brand would be given priority over Mercury in terms of new vehicles, but maintained that Mercury would still receive a new compact car based on the 2012 Ford Focus later this year.

(with Automotive News)

lazybones

Don’t Americans like good looking SUV’s or something?

gary

yes of course, in America, beauty = extremely big grill

Shak

It just proves the Ford didn’t learn anything from the GFC. GM on the other hand is making all these fuel efficient small-mid sized cars. But i guess you cant blame Ford US its the stupid Yankee’s who still insist on buying monster trucks, and Ford is in the business to give the customer what they want.

Safety First

Sorry Shak, but look at each catagory of vehicle in the US market place, look at the top five in economy in each class and you might be surprised to find Ford actually has a very well placed contender…. oh and that includes Hybrids which ford have had before GFC…
Matt

@ Shak: so you haven’t heard of the Fiesta ECOnetic, Fusion Hybrid, Focus ECOnetic, Mondeo ECOnetic, Escape Hybrid, EcoBoost engines, etc..

Safety First

Whoops someone forgot to tell the Americans that these things are Dinosaurs and should be banished from the earth… Camry’s and Prius’ are the vehicle that we should all be aspiring to! After all i read all the bloggs during the GFC crash about how the D3 have had it SOOOO wrong with their product mix.. yet here we are seing production increased to stay in line with demand!! (ROFLMAO)

Actually LAzy, thes don’t look to bad in the metal. They are trucks, and proud of it.

Westy

Safety First, you aren’t thinking the worlds going to end next year are you ? They should be putting more research $$$ into gas rather than creating hybrid/electrics with a boring factor of 1 million. Good on Ford for realising the world will still be here next year. Remember demand for these vehicles is going up, not that Ford a building more in the hope they are going to sell. Those numbers make it economically sound to make them.

Safety First

Actually Westy have a google for the Ford Edge Hydrogen. They are trying different things for sustainability…

Control Blade

Ford have all the bases covered at the moment. They have leading cars in nearly all segments and quality is number one I think. If people want these big vehicles then why not build them for them. GM on the other hand kept building them when nobody wanted them, typical GM.

Matt

Exactly… if people want them, then build them, no brainer. I think the “big three” used to have about 90 days as their standard supply but as part of “the troubles” last year dropped those days down.

GM was trying the “if you build it, they will come” approach. Plus Ford is on a roll at the moment, helping sales of all their vehicles

David Jones

woo hoo make hay while the sun shines good profit spinners.
Baddass

That Lincoln is all lines. Ridiculous.

lazybones

Yeah, I saw something almost as hideous this morning. But I flushed it away.

Both SUV’s look like they were designed 15 years ago. Harsh chunky lines, ridiculous grillies with the ever predictable over use of chrome. You’ve got to love the fatboy handles on the inside of the A Pillar.

http://mymaties.com VDub Fan

Thats right. Burn the planet down. Bigger engines. “Great Job” Yanks.

Andrew M

Good on them.
Mad not to increase production if demand has risen 50%.
anyone saying this is a stupid decision has no business sense

http://. Naughtyius Maximus

This design is the reason Ford sells less cars these days and then upstarts like Kia and Hyundai make sensible nice trendy looking cars and get more sells off Ford.

Ford still has major trouble working out its design ethos…one second kinetic & svelte and next boxy, brash and just angular nothing flowing! Ford truly need to assess there design principles if they are to increase sales worldwide! Some of the pics of SUV’s on here are just yuk!
http://. Naughtyius Maximus

If you look at first pic, side on its based on an old Explorer with revamped front. Old tired look that just does not stack up and it shows shortcuts don’t equal sales success…lined up against others like Sorento and it looks ancient and fossilised!

Well done Ford US, still stuck in your time warp of not letting go and resisting the obvious! One would of thought, after having Mazda somewhat tied up, Mazda’s design on how they design & create cars would of rubbed off positive. Seems like Ford are stale in moving ahead!

nick

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Sales are increasing so why spend money on updating a successful model?

The kinetic design is on just about all of Ford’s cars now and the boxy design is on their larger SUVs and trucks. I can’t really see the kinetic design working on an F350!
Andrew

The top photo is actually an Expedition, which is a different model to the Explorer. The Explorer it looks similar to is still in production in the US and is an update of the same model that was sold here a few years back.