Ford is hoping that a move upmarket and the seemingly never-ending appeal of SUVs will boost sales in the next five years. The global car market continues to grow rapidly. Ford believes that the current total of 1 billion cars a year will hit 2bn in 20 years time, and the company wants a share of those extra sales.

‘Throughout the economic crisis our plan wasn’t about surviving, it was about growing,’ said Stephen Odell, president of Ford of Europe, Middle East and Africa.

‘We have seen 10 straight months of year-on-year growth in Europe and we are on track to be back in profit by 2015.’

Speaking at Ford’s Go Further dealer and press meeting in Barcelona, where the company announced that it will finally build the iconic Mustang sports car for Europe by 2015, including right hand drive for the UK market, Mr Odell said that the European automotive industry will experience 20% growth over the next five years.

At a similar event in 2012 he announced that Ford would launch 15 new vehicles in five years. That plan has already been revised upwards, to 25 new models in that same five-year timescale.

To meet this growing demand, Ford took the wraps off two concepts, a next-generation five-door Ka at the smaller end and the Edge SUV at the heavier end of the scale. The Ka Concept is for a five-door global small vehicle, capable of seating five people. Ford expects that global demand for small cars will increase by 35% from 4m in 2012 to 6.2m by 2017. The Ka Concept also demonstrated a range of on board technology, usually found in larger cars. This included MyFord Dock, designed to store, mount and charge a range of mobile devices from phones to satellite navigation. SYNC with Voice Control and AppLink gives hands free control of phones, music and app activation.

Edge would bring Ford’s North American large SUV to Europe above Kuga and EcoSport. Driver assistance technologies shown in the concept included self-parking and obstacle avoidance systems currently under development. The Fully Assisted Parking Aid, currently being developed by Ford, could permit parking at the touch of a button, or by remote control. Ultrasonic sensors can detect a perpendicular parking space and will allow remote control from a tight space before the driver climbs aboard. The company also has plans to move upmarket, with its recently announced Vignale range, based on Mondeo and S-MAX models.

Ford said that 20% of Kuga sales and 15% of S-MAX sales in the last few years have come from customers moving out of traditional premium brands, with the highest Titanium trim level accounting for almost 40% of those models sold in Europe. However the biggest growth is expected to come from SUV sales, with the market for SUVs in Europe already rising by 35% between 2007 and 2012.

‘Over the next five years we will almost triple our SUV sales in Europe,’ said Jim Farley, Ford’s global vice president of marketing, sales and service.

The company’s SUV range now starts with the Ecosport compact crossover, which arrives in Europe in the coming months. Built in South America, Ford has already sold 130,000 Ecosports in the Latin American market.

Ford produced more than 100,000 Kuga models last year and the 4×4 range will be topped by the Edge, Ford’s first large SUV developed for the European market. ‘We expect to win over 1 million customers in the next five years with our SUV line-up,’ said Mr Farley.

Success won’t just involve the actual cars however; communications, safety and electronics will play an increasingly important role, according to Bill Ford, executive chairman of the company and great grandson of founder Henry Ford.

‘In the next decade 75% of the global population will live in cities,’ he said. ‘Our challenge is to develop cars that communicate with each other and with the world around them.

‘The sheer number of vehicles on the roads could threaten the personal mobility that we have enjoyed for more than a century. To address this we are developing new solutions and reaching out to companies that are leading in key technologies. We will need to view the automobile as one element in a fully integrated transportation ecosystem. Ford will take a leading role in making that happen.’

This includes work on improving technology such as traffic jam and accident alerts, as well as incorporating autonomous functions for parking and driving in slow moving traffic.

‘In the medium term we believe that vehicle-to-vehicle communications will begin to break through into the mainstream,’ said Mr Ford. ‘This will bring some auto-pilot capabilities, such as vehicle “platooning”, where cars travelling in the same direction sync up their movements.’

Ka concept

Ford will take production of its Ka compact model back in-house with the next generation, having shared a platform with Fiat for the current model. For the first time the Ka will have a five-door body and a far more grown-up appearance.

The new Ka will go on sale first in Brazil, where it will be manufactured, along with other key markets in South America. It will be a global car, also being sold in Europe and Asia. Ford says that the sub-B sector is anticipated to grow by 35% between 2012 and 2017.

Edge concept

Unveiled at the 2013 Los Angeles Motor Show, the Edge concept previews a third SUV for European markets. The full size SUV will sit above the Kuga in a three-model SUV line-up with the Ecosport at the lighter end.

The interior in particular will have a premium car approach with a leather-wrapped and stitched instrument panel and a 10-inch central display screen featuring Ford SYNC and voice control. There are no driveline details yet, but Edge will have advanced automated technologies including full assisted parking, to park the car at the touch of a button or even by remote control.

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