Ford Will Kill Off Most Of Its Cars By 2020 As SUVs And Pickups Take Over

For most car buyers in North America right now, it seems one simply must have either an SUV or a pick-up truck. So where does that leave all other passenger vehicles? In the case of Ford, kicked to the kerb.

In the firm’s latest quarterly report, Ford confirmed that “by 2020, almost 90 percent of the Ford portfolio in North America will be trucks, utilities and commercial vehicles.” The company added: “Given declining consumer demand and product profitability, the company will not invest in next generations of traditional Ford sedans for North America.”

What this means is that Ford’s North American car portfolio “will transition to two vehicles,” those being the Mustang (above) and the incoming Focus Active (below). The latter vehicle being a kinda/sorta crossover itself, rather than a normal car. The Fiesta, Fusion, C-Max, Taurus and all other versions of the Focus are for the chop.

In the meantime, Ford says it is also looking into “new ‘white space’ vehicle silhouettes that combine the best attributes of cars and utilities, such as higher ride height, space and versatility.”

It should should come as no surprise that electrifying all the things is also on the agenda. Hybrid versions of “high-volume, profitable vehicles” such as the F-150, Mustang (sorry, purists), Explorer, Escape and Bronco. Ford’s first battery-electric vehicle will be here in 2020 meanwhile, and by 2022 the company will have 16 EVs in its line-up.