Yahoo Autos Ford working to drastically cut vehicle configurations and options
On one side, the pandemic and its aftereffects have changed supply dynamics in several ways that automakers want to use to increase profit; encouraging more retail orders and cutting down on inventory, for example. On the other, automakers have huge bills coming up for the transition to electrified product lineups — bills so large that the OEMs are taking every step possible to bolster the balance sheet. Ford's been talking about trimming vehicle complexity for a while, the rhetoric getting more frequent since the beginning of the year. During Ford's Q2 earnings call, company CEO Jim Farley told analysts, "We do have a fresh lineup. We have lots of cool ideas, but we’re not satisfied with that because we cannot just continue to build this complexity in our business. So, as we add those derivatives, we’re going to have to, you know, we are planning much less complexity in our Blue business, and that is a theme that will run through Blue for years to come."
Ford Blue is the ICE-powered product side, as opposed to Ford Model E, the EV side, and Ford Pro, the commercial side.
