The Ford Falcon ute could be reborn – in spirit at least.
The Blue Oval brand is looking to bolster its ute ranks in Australia with a fresh take on the load-lugger that looks set to focus more on performance and everyday driveability rather than load lugging and extreme off-road capability.
Speaking exclusively to CarExpert during his Australian visit this week, outspoken Ford CEO Jim Farley said he can see the value in a monocoque ute that in some ways revives the legend of the Falcon ute.
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Mr Farley said Australia’s long history with car-based utes – from a long line of Falcons and the rival Holden Commodore to cult classics such as the Subaru Brumby – shows there’s still strong appeal for the formula.
“I think this country gave the globe the ute,” Mr Farley said, referencing Ford’s 1934 Coupe Utility credited with inventing the car-based ute. “So, I’m pretty serious about it.”
Mr Farley sees such a vehicle as a way to further stamp the brand as an authority in commercial vehicles, something that’s proving popular around the world.
He also clearly sees it as a way to steal a march on arch rival Toyota.
“Even today, there’s no Toyota unibody pickup in the US,” he said.
While Ford already sells the mid-size Maverick ute in the United States, Mr Farley indicated Australia would likely get something different rather than simply importing the Escape-based model.
“We have really been successful with Maverick (in the US). We sell 200,000 Mavericks a year,” he said, before suggesting the Aussie monocoque ute solution would likely be more tailored to local needs.
“No, I don’t think it should be the same, necessarily (as Maverick),” he said. “I’m not going to get into specifics. All I’m saying is, Aussies would love – on paper – a unibody, efficient, even performance [ute] because they have [previously].”
Mr Farley reinforced that any new vehicle would need to be engineered specifically with Australian usage in mind rather than simply adapting a model developed for other markets.
“To do it right here, as a car person, I would want it not to just stamp a global solution and force the market to take it – so that’s why I’m here,” said Mr Farley.
“How to solve it for here is different than the US. The cost … the usage is more extreme here. The commercial space would be bigger for it here [from a sales perspective].”
He refused to detail where such a ute would come from, other than to suggest the details had been discussed internally.
One potential pathway could involve China, where Ford already builds several models tailored to regional markets.
The China-built Ford Territory is an example of the kind of global collaboration the company could leverage.
The latest Territory – a mid-size SUV produced in China, where it’s known as the Equator Sport – is already sold in several right-hand-drive markets including South Africa.
It’s powered by a turbocharged 1.5-litre EcoBoost four-cylinder petrol engine and recently gained a hybrid system, demonstrating the kind of electrified powertrain Ford is increasingly pushing globally.
Any new unibody ute would likely need to be sold in multiple markets to justify development costs, with South Africa an obvious candidate alongside Australia.
Not that Mr Farley was giving any clues.
“I’m not saying anything about where it’s from, what it looks like. We’ll be talking and discussing it [more],” he said.
Wherever it comes from, expect it to be more than just another vehicle.
He hinted that whatever Ford builds for Australia would need to respect the country’s strong performance heritage.
He pointed to the high-performance versions of the Falcon that were in many ways considered the closest thing to an Australian sports car.
“We have a long history [with Australian utes] and so there’d be a lot of performance expectations here. People would be asking ‘can I get it with a V8’,” he said.
It’s at that point he alluded to the government’s stringent New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES), which places strict limits on CO2 emissions, as something that could prevent a V8-powered version.
Such a unibody ute could have an unlikely ally in the race to make it production: Mr Farley’s son.
“My kid in the United States, his favourite car in the world is a high-performance Falcon ute,” said the Ford boss. “He can see the value of the vehicle just by looking at it.”
Mr Farley is in Australia until Friday and says he will make a decision on the unibody ute before he leaves as part of the company’s US$9 billion-plus (A$12.8bn) product development pipeline for the next 12 months.
Along with advanced product development vice president Sam Basile and COO Kumar Galhotra, Mr Farley is in Australia until Friday and says he will make a decision on the unibody ute before he leaves.
Ford is busily expanding its ute/pickup lineup, confirming two affordable new models for the US market.
In addition to a mid-size electric model due in 2027, based on the new Universal EV platform and starting at under US$30,000 (A$42,800), Ford has confirmed it’ll launch a new combustion-powered model.
It’s expected in 2029 and will also be built in the US, and will carry a base price under ~US$40,000 (A$56,000). Further details on this combustion-powered pickup, however, remain scarce.