DETROIT — The company that ushered in the SUV Age hopes to make compacts cool and remake its image along the way.Ford unveiled the 2012 Focus today at the North American International Auto Show. CEO Alan Mulally is betting the slick compact will help Ford shake its reputation for building SUVs like the Explorer and make the company a leader in the growing small-car segment. More than that, the Focus is the first car developed under the company’s “One Ford” plan to offer essentially the same cars and trucks worldwide, each tweaked to meet specific markets.
“The Focus is more than a car,” said John Fleming, head of Ford’s European division. “It is a new way of doing business.”The idea behind “One Ford” is simple: Use one platform to build a wide variety of automobiles and offer them in every market. Automakers typically offer completely different models in each region of the world, which is one reason Europe gets cooler cars than we do.Mulally has been pushing the idea since coming to Ford from Boeing — where he was head of commercial aviation — in 2006. It’s a huge gamble, but the payoff is unprecedented economies of scale. By 2012, Ford plans to build 2 million vehicles annually using the architecture underpinning the Focus. Eventually it will offer 10 models that use the same platform.
“This is their big global push to build one car for the world,” said Aaron Bragman, an industry analyst with IHS Global Insight. “This is a big bet for Ford.”The odds that bet will pay off are pretty good.Compacts aren’t very popular in the United States, but they’re huge everywhere else. One-third of all vehicles sold in Europe are compacts, known in the auto biz as C-segment vehicles. More importantly, they make up 70 percent of new cars sold in China, where consumers bought 17.3 million cars last year.
“One of every four cars sold worldwide is a small car,” said Mark Fields, Ford’s president of the Americas.
That figure will only climb. Small car sales in the United States are expected to grow 25 percent to 3.4 million cars by 2012. Ford’s betting a lot of those cars will be Focus hatchbacks and sedans.
It’s a handsome car, sleek and muscular, drawing heavily from Ford’s “kinetic design” styling. That means it’s got a lot of trapezoidal shapes, sharp lines and stretched headlights. It’s definitely got a European vibe to it. The interior is inviting and draws styling influences from aircraft cockpits, and nothing about the car seems cheap. In keeping with Ford’s fetish for gadgets, the Focus will sport the cool MyFord system, which replaces many of the gauges, switches and buttons on the dashboard with touch-sensitive LCD screens.
Under the hood there’s a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine. It’s got variable valve timing and direct injection to boost fuel efficiency. The engine is mated to a six-speed, dual-clutch transmission. Look for 155 horsepower, 145 pound-feet of torque and fuel economy in the 40-mpg ballpark. Europe gets a diesel, and Ford plans to offer a limited number of Focus electric cars in 2011.
“The Ford Focus will be a fuel efficiency and CO2 leader in every market,” promised company Executive Chairman Bill Ford. “It’s responsible, it’s fun and it’s functional.”
Ford hasn’t said so, but Bragman is among those who’s pretty sure we’ll see a four-cylinder EcoBoost engine in the Focus before long. If that happens, look for 200 or so horsepower.
Production begins later this year at the Michigan Assembly Plant that used to crank out Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs. The company is spending $550 million to retool the factory. Look for the first cars to appear in showrooms early next year. No word on the price, but the current Focus sedan starts at $16,290.
Now if we can get Ford to bring the awesome 301-horsepower Focus RS to the United States, we’d be all set.
