Ford is planning to offer a total of 12 performance vehicles in its portfolio by the year 2020. That’s the result of a recent change that has combined Ford SVT, Team RS Europe, and Ford Racing into a single new department titled Ford Performance. And in this interview on Autoline After Hours, Dave Pericak, Director of Ford Performance and Jamie Allison of Ford Racing, provide some interesting insight about Ford’s near future.
Pericak states that the merger of Ford’s various performance divisions will allow the automaker to be more efficient in delivering better vehicles, to progress in an innovative fashion, and — most importantly to Ford — to boost profit. The video briefly covers the fact that Ford will enlarge its performance fleet, meaning that the current amount of six vehicles, including the Fiesta ST, Focus ST Focus RS, Mustang Shelby GT350, Mustang Shelby GT350R, F-150 Raptor, and the GT supercar will double within the next five years.
Allison, meanwhile, explains that Ford is banking on Millennials who appear to be showing a great interest in the automaker’s performance vehicles, particularly the ST models. These customers are paying roughly twice as much as the cost of the “average” Ford vehicle. An interesting statistic from the video is that the performance segment in the United States market has grown seventy percent since 2009, and Ford’s ST cars serve as a great “entry” vehicles for those who are new to Ford.
The interview was recorded at the end of February, when Ford had four NASCAR victories in a row. When asked how Ford plans to keep the world of motorsports in a time when viewership is diminishing, Allison explained that Ford focuses on consumer outreach and relevance. And even though it is difficult for us to imagine that you would have to persuade someone to take interest in racing, it seems that not everyone is as passionate about performance vehicles as we are. Generally, however, live sports “continues to percolate as a high interest amongst viewership.”
Watch the interview in its entirety, and let us know in the comments what you thought to be the most interesting elements in the comments.
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