Ford has dropped its biggest hint yet that the all-new Bronco and F-150 could be sold in Australia, potentially as factory right-hand drive models.
A powerpoint slide shown in an investor presentation titled “Fix: Launch Execution” shows the key models Ford is currently working on for global consumption.
These models include the Bronco, F-150, Mustang Mach-E, Explorer, the “small rugged off-road utility”, and the Puma and Kuga, with a legend at the bottom of the slide confirming which markets will receive which cars.
We already know the Puma and Kuga (locally known as the Escape) will launch in Australia, but at this stage there have been no signs the F-150 or Bronco will be offered Down Under.
That seems to have changed, with both the F-150 and Bronco showing launch confirmation for the IMG market.
In the Ford world, IMG refers to a part of Ford’s business that covers around 100 markets including Australia, New Zealand, India, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, the Middle East, Africa and ASEAN.
While some of these markets offer left-hand drive vehicles, markets such as Australia, New Zealand, India and parts of Africa fall into the right-hand drive category.
Part of the presentation also indicated that ‘plant preparedness’ was an area of improvement for launch execution, which could be a reference to factory right-hand drive implementation for these models.
The Ford Bronco is built on a modified version of the Ford Ranger T6 platform, which is sold in right-hand drive across the world.
Ford’s future partnership with Volkswagen on the 2022 Ford Ranger and Ford Everest will also spawn both left- and right-hand drive cars, so it’s logical to assume the Blue Oval will extract more sales from the Bronco and F-150 by going down this route as well.
The Ford F-150 is currently the best-selling car in the USA, with just under 900,000 sales in 2019. That’s more than double the nearest SUV in the list, which was the Toyota RAV4 with just under 450,000 sales.
Not only that, it has been the best selling car in the US for the past 37 consecutive years.
Ford Australia at this stage says there are no concrete plans to build a right-hand drive F-150.
“There are no current plans to make F-150 available in right-hand drive,” said Matt Moran, Ford Australia and New Zealand communications boss.
Moran offered no comment offered about the Bronco, which is encouraging – and ‘no current plans’ doesn’t mean never.
Would you like to see the Ford F-150 and Bronco offered in Australia and right-hand drive markets?
Read up on the top 10 best selling cars in Australia in 2021:
