Amid a tightening budget and uncertainty surrounding demand for large vehicles,
Ford has been forced to shelve plans for new rear-wheel-drive sedans, according to design chief J Mays. The news comes six months after high gas prices prompted
Ford
to begin
re-evaluating its RWD program.
Rumors about the new platform have been circulating for the past couple of years, and the longstanding story has been the architecture would be developed in Australia, where such vehicles are particularly popular.
“We’re going down a path right now that is all about fuel efficiency, and we’ve got a lot to do about that. So we’re not talking about rear-wheel drive,” Mays told
Automotive News. RWD is “out of the cycle plan,” he added.
Mays said he is disappointed the projects have been cancelled. “I was very excited about it,” he said, noting that market conditions “changed right before our eyes.”
Ford and
Lincoln were expected to get at least one model each. The cars were expected to draw on the
Ford Interceptor and
Lincoln MKR concepts, both of which were rear-wheel-drive.
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