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Ford confirms Everest SUV production for China

According to Ford, the Chinese SUV segment grew by 49 percent in 2013, and the Blue Oval held a 4.5 percent market share. At the 2014 Beijing Motor Show, Ford is showing the Everest SUV that, while just a concept for now, will go into production in the near future.
The Everest is a big, brawny seven-seat SUV that mixes solid, chiseled styling and contemporary Ford design cues. Up front there is an angular version of the trapezoidal grille and sharp, wraparound headlights. The beltline rises in the rear to make the back appear higher than the front. The rear seems just as chiseled, with the taillights resting in jagged scallops. There is no doubt that this concept means to look rugged, and ready for rough roads - the whole thing looks pretty great.
The truck was penned by Ford's Asia Pacific design and engineering team in Australia, and it was first shown in Sydney last year. Ford's JMC joint venture will build the truck for the Chinese market, and it will be sold at Ford dealers there. The Blue Oval isn't hinting at what powers the production version yet, but it reportedly shares some components with the foreign-market Ranger.

Ford brings FPV Falcon production in house [w/video]

For the first time since 1976, Ford of Australia is bringing the assembly of its stonking Ford Performance Vehicle line back in-house to the company's Broadmeadows and Geelong facilities. That's a point of pride for FPV, which builds high-performance versions of the Australian Falcon model like the F6, GS and the heroic GT seen here.
In the video below, we hear FPV employees talking in hushed tones about the important legacy that cars like the GT have for Australian gearheads of all stripes, and how proud they are to say that hand-built machines like this GT R-Spec with its Boss 355 engine are now rolling out of their home base. For our part, we're just dying to drive this version of the Coyote V8; the engine is rocking a "Miami" supercharger from Harrop and makes some 450 horsepower.
Continue on below for the video, or you can check out some images of the new FPV at the facility, as well as a gallery of the GT R-Spec car.

Ford's Farley will challenge dealers to cut EV cost to customers by $2,000

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co Chief Executive Jim Farley will go to Las Vegas next week to roll the dice on a strategy to convince dealers to cut as much as $2,000 from the cost of delivering an electric vehicle to a customer. Ford has told dealers that one key topic for the meetings will be a discussion of new agreements that would govern how dealers sell Ford's expanding lineup of electric vehicles. Farley told analysts in July that Ford needs to cut $2,000 a vehicle out of selling and distribution costs to be competitive with Tesla Inc and other electric vehicle startups that sell directly to consumers without franchised dealers. About a third of those savings could come from what Farley called a "low inventory model," where customers order a vehicle and Ford ships it to the customer, rather than stocking vehicles on dealer lots for weeks or months. "We think that's about -- worth maybe $600, $700 in our system," Farley told analysts. Tesla can also adjust prices rapidly on its website, and keep most of the gain from a price increase. Ford declined to comment other than to say “we are excited to meet next week with our North America dealers to grow and win together.” Dealers said they expect Ford to outline minimum investments for charging stations and other equipment to support electric vehicle customers. A key question will be how quickly dealers will be required to install chargers, which dealers said can cost as much as $500,000. "The manufacturers so far have let us scale into it and I think Ford will hopefully do the same thing. You just can't say, 'Listen, we're going to sell 2 million electric cars five years from now and we expect you to put in five superchargers,'" said Rhett Ricart, owner of Ricart Ford, a large dealership in Columbus, Ohio. Tesla's success at selling electric vehicles without franchised dealers is putting pressure on all established automakers to overhaul their retail networks. A shift by Ford to a Tesla-style build to order system could come with caps on the profit margins dealers can earn on a new vehicle sale, some dealers said. "I see dealer margins still being very competitive, but they are going to shift," Farley said in July. Ford intends to put more emphasis on selling products and services after the initial vehicle sale, he said. Dealers said state franchise laws could give dealers leverage to resist efforts by Ford to set fixed prices or fixed fees for delivering electric vehicles.