Your Ford Taurus may be about to become a limited edition.
Ford announced Wednesday that it would be no longer be selling passenger cars in the United States and Canada, with the exception of the Mustang and the Ford Focus Active. The company will continue to sell trucks and SUVs, which will now make up 86 percent of its automobile sales by volume. General Motors may soon follow suit.
Ford recently announced that it will cut $11.5 billion in costs. It will also reallocate $7 billion designated for research from cars to trucks.
Jim Farley, Ford president of Global Markets, announced on Medium on March 15 that trucks and SUVs would be making up most of Ford’s offering.
We’ve heard consumers talk about simplifying their lives. We’ve watched the trends and heard how they are getting outdoors, finding time away, and enjoying authentic experiences with their family and friends. Listening to our customers and incorporating their feedback has always been a part of Ford’s DNA, and we plan to continue to work that way. Which is why you’ll soon be seeing more trucks and SUVs in our showrooms; in fact, they’ll be 86 percent of our volume.
On Wednesday, Ford expanded on this by adding that the remaining sedans it will be producing will be limited to the Mustang and the Ford Focus Active, a hatchback that's set to debut in 2019. Other models, including the Taurus, the original Ford Focus, the Fiesta and the Fusion, will no longer be available in the United States or Canada.
And Ford is not the only American car company scaling back production of sedans. GM CFO Chuck Stevens told CNBC, “I think we have been on this path for a number of years.”
GM has already cut down on production of the Chevy Cruze, Chevy Impala, Buick LaCrosse, and Cadillac ATS and CTS, according to CNN Money.
But for its part, GM is not ready to throw in the towel on the sedan market just yet.
“Although passenger car segments have declined over the last number of years, they are still very important,” GM's Stevens said, according to CNBC. “Small cars are important internationally, and they still make up a chunk of sales in the United States.”
