THE Ford Falcon may be departing, but long live the Taurus… Ranger… Everest… Escort… and every other as-yet unheralded vehicle styled by Ford right here in Australia.
With local manufacturing ceasing next year for thousands of workers both at the Blue Oval and potentially its associated suppliers, it is easy to lose sight of all the other projects underway at the Ford Motor Company of Australia HQ in Campbellfield, in the northern outskirts of Melbourne.
As part of Ford Asia-Pacific's design and engineering operations, the local outfit is currently running at 1550 personnel and growing, with some of the work coming from other, smaller (and mostly Chinese) brands outsourcing development.
Ford says that it is developing some 50 new vehicles and powertrains, with many expected for China and India.
Last month, Ford's Asia-Pacific product development vice-president Trevor Worthington told Shannons that his department is “jam-packed full”.
“We are working on multiple programs,” he said, adding: “…we are fully utilised.”
Perhaps the most ironic of all the jobs in the pipeline in Campbellfield is the next-generation Taurus large car, a vehicle that some sections of the motoring media are mooting as the direct replacement for the Falcon. Ford denies this of course, and with dwindling sales of the final FG X, it is hard not to imagine that the medium-sized Mondeo will take over come late 2016.
Whatever the outcome, there is definitely a huge dollop of Australian know-how lurking within its 5x2 metre perimeter.
Based on an as-yet unspecified front-wheel drive large-car platform (that we believe is a stretched version of the latest Mondeo/US Fusion underpinnings), the Taurus is longer and wider than any car bearing that name has ever been before.
Sitting on a 2950mm wheelbase – some 83mm longer than the US-market version that with a chassis that dates back to the 1998 Volvo S80 – the newcomer’s chief role is to compete in China’s luxury car class, with the emphasis being on rear-seat comfort.
To that end, the latter reclines and massages, while the centre armrest features a variety of vehicle switches that the presumably chauffeured owner (sat out back) can control.
Incredibly, the Ford’s number one rival in China will be the massively popular Audi A6, highlighting the quality effort the company has had to put in.
The vehicle’s styling was headed by Australian designer Todd Willing, who also was behind the look of the GT supercar.
“We wanted to create a vehicle that displays a maturity of design with balanced and harmonious proportions, tailored to the business customer in China,” he said. “Our aim was to create a vehicle that is elegant, inviting and quietly confident.”
Much of the big sedan’s engineering shakedown work was performed in Australia over the past couple of years. Driving the front wheels is a modified version of Ford’s 2.7-litre twin-turbo V6 petrol engine, delivering between 225kW and 255kW of power and in excess of 500Nm of torque, via a six-speed automatic transmission.
The Taurus follows hot on the heels of the 2013 Escort sedan, a development of the previous-generation Focus that, too, has been designed specifically for the Chinese consumer.
With the company’s One Ford ethos dictating minimal duplication, it is likely that the US version of the next-generation Taurus may be based on the car you see right here.
Holden has already indicated that it is not going to abandon the large-car class once the current VF Commodore runs it course and its Australian manufacturing base shuts down in 2017, with an all-new imported vehicle taking over.
And that, of course, begs the question: will it eventually come to Australia?
Byron Mathioudakis GoAuto.com.au
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