Detroit – Ford Motor Co. is calling the Edge wagon its most important new vehicle of 2006, as the automaker tries to halt a U.S. market-share slide now in its 11th year.
The Edge, a so-called crossover that combines features of a car and a sport-utility vehicle, begins sales in November and is being touted at reporter test drives this week in San Francisco. It’s Ford’s second crossover, after the Freestyle introduced in 2004. Freestyle sales haven’t met the company’s expectations.
“If the Edge disappoints, most consumers would write off Ford for those vehicles,” said Eric Noble, president of the consulting firm Car Lab in Orange, Calif. “Everyone is looking for a signal from Ford they’re still viable.”
Ford, the second-largest U.S. automaker, adds the Edge as crossover sales are increasing while those of other SUVs, minivans and pickups are falling. Ford’s success in boosting U.S. car sales has been overwhelmed by the drop in demand for its light trucks, pushing the company’s total sales down 8.6 percent in this year’s first nine months.
The Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker’s U.S. market share through September fell 1 percentage point from a year earlier to 17.9 percent. Ford hasn’t had an annual increase since 1995, when it accounted for 25.7 percent of U.S. sales.
Ford’s North American auto operations have lost money in seven of the past eight quarters, and the company has said it doesn’t expect them to be profitable until 2009. That spurred two restructuring programs this year, including the elimination of 44,000 jobs and closing nine plants by 2008.
“We’re going to continue to get battered in the marketplace for our financial performance,” Executive Vice President Mark Fields, chief of Ford’s Americas unit, said in a company-produced documentary posted on its website Sept. 20.
“This launch is absolutely crucial,” Fields said about the Edge in the documentary. “If there’s one product that has to deliver, this one has to be it.”
Ford began production of the Edge on Monday in Oakville, Ontario, the automaker said.
