Ford Mondeo’s platform to underpin global mid-size car, next-generation Fusion
FoMoCo CEO Alan Mulally has made it clear that he wants the automaker to use certain platforms on a global scale. Derrick Kuzak, Ford’s group vice president of global development, said that Ford’s global mid-sized car – and the replacement for the U.S. Ford Fusion – will be based on the European Mondeo.
“We’re transitioning to a Fusion-Mondeo convergence,” Kuzak told Automotive News at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show.
Kuzak said that Mondeo’s EUCD platform will be the foundation for the new mid-sized global vehicle and that core-development work for the car will be the responsibility of Ford of Europe engineers. The EUCD is newer than the CD3 platform that currently underpins the Fusion, Mercury Milan and the Lincoln MKZ. It also underpins the Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX crossovers.
The CD3 platform was derived from the Mazda6. Ford recently reduced its stake in Mazda to 13 percent.
There is no word on when the global mid-sized car will arrive in Europe or North America but analysts say to expect the car to go on sale sometime in 2012 as a 2013 model year.
2010 Ford Fusion:
