FG Falcon: Platform previews global reach

AUSTRALIA is well placed to take a lead role in the development of Ford’s forthcoming global rear-wheel drive architecture, according to Ford Australia president Bill Osborne and product development vice-president Trevor Worthington.

Admitting he was disappointed that the all-new FG Falcon was not engineered for left-hand drive, Mr Osborne said at the FG’s launch in Melbourne this week that he nonetheless expected new export markets to open up “over time” and that Australia should play a significant role in the global RWD program.

“We’ll leverage all the experience and expertise we have here in Australia for any global rear-wheel drive platform in the future – I think Australia will play a big role in that, simply because our expertise here is quite strong and is evidenced really in the new Falcon,” he said.

A native of Detroit, Michigan, with a background in engineering, Mr Osborne revealed that the FG platform about to be placed into service could “evolve” to the global RWD architecture, which is due to be implemented in the US by early next decade, potentially shortening the new Falcon’s traditional lifecycle by as much as half.

“It could be that this (FG) platform evolves to the global rear-wheel drive platform. We just don’t know. But one thing is very certain – we are consolidating platforms, and, ultimately, I believe that whatever platform that we use for rear-wheel drive products will be sold around the world.

“Our plans generally call for a 10-year cycle on any given model. Now, that’s not unusual for that to be short-cycle if a new platform comes into play. It’s not unusual for a given platform to grow and develop into further products. It just depends on, really, what happens in our product plans,” he said.

Ford Motor Co chief executive Alan Mulally and global product chief Derrick Kuzak – both of whom drove the new FG Falcon last year – confirmed last month that the American auto giant was working on a global RWD platform that would be used for forthcoming new-generation vehicles in the United States, under both the Ford and Lincoln brands.

These are expected to include successors to the current Ford Crown Victoria and Lincoln Town Car, not to mention the Ford Mustang.

Left: Global product chief Derrick Kuzak. Mr Worthington confirmed that Australia was involved in developing the global RWD program and said he was “confident” his team would end up playing “the right” role.

“We have a seat at the table with global rear-wheel drive,” he said. “A lot of the pre-planning with ‘bandwidth’ – what size it should be – all of that work is happening, and we are definitely part of that process.

“But at the end of the day, we work for a global company and there are skills and experience all around the world … The advantage we’ve got right now is that we have this great car that senior people in the company have driven.

“At the end of the day, all those decisions have still got to be made, but I feel pretty confident that we’ll play the right role.” The Ford engineering chief revealed to GoAuto that Mr Osborne had brought a “new enthusiasm” to the prospects of re-engineering the FG Falcon for left-hand drive.

However, this is not expected to occur before the new global V6 engine slots into the FG series from 2010.

“Bill has brought a new enthusiasm to the discussion, but we haven’t engineered it for left-hand drive because there were no plans,” Mr Worthington said. “If we were to engineer it for left-hand-drive there would be other stuff I would have to give up doing because I just don’t have the capacity to do it.

“It would be an incremental challenge (to make the current inline-six engine meet US regulations) – you probably wouldn’t do it with this engine.” He also conceded that that the FG utility could be successful in the United States, but, again, in the longer-term.

“I guess there is a market there for it, but Ford US has still got some problems,” he told GoAuto. “We are making money pretty much all around the world, but not in the US, so they have to stick to their knitting and get their base plan right.

“They need to get their base plan right before they look beyond that and take on more.” Mr Osborne said he was hopeful that Australian engineers would play a big role in shaping future global rear-drive cars.

“I’m very hopeful because the Australian engineers have really made a fantastic achievement with the new Falcon. And so I believe that we’ll play a very big role in the future,” he said.

“You know, once you drive this vehicle, you’ll see it is a world-class sedan and it was engineered and developed right here in Australia – and I think that says volumes about our capability.

“I think it is a vehicle that has application around the world in a number of markets. Quite frankly, I am disappointed that we don’t have a left-hand drive version.” Messrs Osborne and Worthington also stressed that there was no sign of a slowdown in demand for rear-wheel drive cars among Australian consumers.

“The work that we did that led to this car told us that they were demanding rear-wheel drive cars,” Mr Worthington said. “Now, what they demand out in the future, I guess, is all the work that we still have to do.

“But with the positioning of these cars having an element of premium around them – not just run-of-the-mill global D (large) cars or global C/D (medium-large) cars – customers in this segment are looking for a premium element, whether that’s the luxury, the sportiness, the performance, the safety. And all of those attributes can be best delivered by a rear-wheel drive platform.”

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