Ford Motor Company has outlined its commitment in the European market with a dual-pronged approach that will see the USA manufacturer continue to grow and develop its healthy commercial vehicle division, Ford Pro, while five new passenger models including a Fiesta sized electric car point to a significant shift after years of sales stagnation and the removal of many of its best selling models from its line-up.
Key to growing its commercial vehicle market share is a strategy to leverage software and services to maximise customers’s return on every vehicle. “Ford Pro is the backbone of our European business,” said Jim Baumbick, President, Ford in Europe. “We don’t just sell vans and pickups pick-ups, we deliver an integrated ecosystem of vehicles, software and services.”
Ford Pro’s Uptime Services, which uses embedded modems fitted to all Ford commercial vehicles since 2019 to provide connected vehicle data and predictive intelligence to identify issues before they become problems, has been available in selected countries for a few years, with more than 1.2 million European customers currently connected. In a major expansion of this service, Ford is now enabling dealers to offer and manage these capabilities through Dealer Uptime Services. It means dealers can proactively monitor customer vehicles and reach out proactively for potential problems, thus minimising expensive vehicle downtime.
There’s also a new product on the way in the form of the Ranger Super Duty, a highly capable version of the Ranger Pick-Up, launched recently at the Commercial Vehicle Show in Birmingham, is designed for the most demanding work. With a total combined mass (payload + towing) of 8 tonnes and capable of towing up to 4.5 tonnes, the Ranger Super Duty has a near 2-tonne payload, and comes with heavy-duty suspension, extra underbody protection and high ground clearance direct from the factory in Thailand.
A full report on Ford’s new Ready-Set-Ford global brand platform and further details of its plans for Europe will feature in the next issue of Fleet Transport.
Cathal Doyle reporting from Salzburg