Ford to Trim Vehicles From North American Lineup, Will Focus on Truck and SUV’s

If you’re a fan of Ford cars, you may be looking to relocate outside the United States of risk having to give up your allegiance to the heralded Blue Oval. With the exception of the Mustang and the crossover-esque Focus Active, Ford is dropping all of it’s passenger car offerings, phasing out the Fusion, Fiesta and Focus models over the next two years.

Put simply, the models aren’t profitable, or at least not as profitable as the better-selling F-series truck lineup and SUV offerings, according to the Dearborn, MI-based automaker’s CEO Jim Hackett. “We are committed to taking the appropriate actions to drive profitable growth and maximize the returns of our business over the long term,” Hackett said. “Where we can raise the returns of underperforming parts of our business by making them more fit, we will. If appropriate returns are not on the horizon, we will shift that capital to where we can play and win.”

According to an article on Road & Track Magazine’s website, this is part of a plan by Ford to cut some $5 billion in overhead from 2019 to 2022 that should help the company’s bottom line. While we certainly understand the necessity of trimming fat, this leaves a big hole in the market and the company’s lineup that it seems will send customers elsewhere looking for a suitable sedan or sporty hatch.

There’s also the question that we asked first when we heard the news here in the office: what does this mean for NASCAR’s teams that run the Ford Fusion body in the Monster Energy series? With only the Mustang left in the lineup, does this mean we’ll be seeing Mustangs and Camaros mixing it up on speedways in the next couple of years, or is there some kind of loophole that will allow the Ford teams to continue to run the Fusion even if it’s not offered here in the states? We’ll just have to wait on that announcement to find out the plan for those teams.