The future of the Ford Fusion is in doubt as The Detroit News has obtained a letter to suppliers which informed them the planned redesigned for the 2020 model has been canceled.
The cancellation comes as a bit of a surprise but an insider told the publication the Fusion and Mondeo will remain part of the company’s lineup for at least three or four more years. This seems to suggest the cars are living on borrowed time but that might not be the case.
Another source told the paper Ford might have cancelled the redesign because management determined they “didn’t have the right product or product design to meet demand.”
Ford spokesman Mike Levine declined to discuss the letter but he told the publication the “Fusion remains an important part of the Ford lineup for years to come with even more new fresh features on the way.”
That’s not much to go on but speculation has suggested the Fusion could become larger if it makes it to the third-generation. This could mean the Fusion will enter Taurus territory but reports have indicated the latter model could be dropped by the end of the year.
Carsalesbase data shows the Fusion remains a relatively strong seller as the company sold 265,840 units in the United States in 2016. That’s approximately 120,000 units less than the Toyota Camry but it is still a pretty significant number.
Ford is staying mum on specifics but CEO Jim Hackett unveiled his strategic update to investors last fall and it called for the company to reallocate $7 billion of capital from cars to trucks and SUVs. This will result in the company will offering fewer cars while adding a handful of new trucks and SUVs such as the Bronco and Ranger.
That same presentation also mentioned the next-generation Fusion and revealed it will be offered with less build combinations. Ford offers approximately 35,000 different combinations on the current model but the company wanted to cut that number to just 96 combinations on the next-generation Fusion.
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