Fusion's future unclear

DETROIT — With U.S. sales of more than 1.6 million this year, the midsize family sedan is by no means dead. But rather than idly watching to see if the end happens, Ford Motor Co. is preparing to halt North American production of its top-selling car in this country, the Fusion.

The automaker told suppliers last week that it was canceling plans to build the next-generation Fusion, starting in 2020, at the plant in Hermosillo, Mexico, that makes the current version of the car, sources with knowledge of the discussions told Automotive News. It's unclear whether Ford would stop selling the Fusion in the U.S., replace it with a different vehicle or build it elsewhere. A Ford spokesman declined to comment.

The move would be in line with Ford and other automakers' pivot toward utility vehicles to capitalize on shifting consumer demand and prioritize more profitable vehicles amid plateauing U.S. sales. Although some outliers, such as Toyota and Volkswagen, continue to invest in sedans, other automakers are offshoring production or dropping nameplates.

In the U.S., Ford plans to add five crossover nameplates by 2020, while most of its mass-market cars are being pushed aside. The Fiesta, built in Mexico, likely will be discontinued here sometime after the EcoSport small crossover arrives in 2018. Focus production is shifting from Michigan to China; C-Max output ends next year; and Ford is expected to kill the U.S. version of the Taurus.

Ford's moves come after Fiat Chrysler Automobiles stopped making the Chrysler 200 and Dodge Dart and General Motors' Buick brand axed the U.S. version of its Verano compact last year.

The Fusion would be the highest-volume car to go out of production in North America as a result of the crossover boom, marking a dramatic twist in the life of a nameplate that was key to Ford's turnaround after the recession nearly a decade ago. As recently as last year, Ford was building the Fusion in both Michigan and Mexico to meet demand.

Ford is in the midst of reviewing its product portfolio under new CEO Jim Hackett. Executives said in October that Ford would offer fewer car nameplates but did not offer specifics.

"Every good business, over time, should be pruning its portfolio to make room for new stuff and remove some things that are past their time," Joe Hinrichs, Ford's president of global operations, said at the Automotive News World Congress in January.

Ford said this year that the Focus would be imported from China, which is now the world's largest vehicle market, instead of Mexico, where it has scrapped a plan to build a $1.6 billion plant. The end of Focus production in Michigan became a thorny issue for Ford when President Donald Trump, during his campaign, repeatedly attacked the plan to assemble it in Mexico. Halting Fusion output is less likely to spark a political firestorm, given that it doesn't involve U.S. jobs.

Ford has said moving the Focus to China will save about $500 million. Cost cuts have been a priority under Hackett, who is reallocating $7 billion of capital from cars to light trucks in the coming years.

Ford has sold more than 2.7 million Fusions in the U.S. since its introduction in 2005, but this year will mark a third consecutive decline in volume since annual sales peaked at 306,860 in 2014, according to the Automotive News Data Center. After its redesign for the 2013 model year, the Fusion looked as if it might finally give Detroit a fighting chance against the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, but it faded quickly as customers gravitated toward Ford's crossovers instead.

U.S. Fusion sales are down 22 percent through November, vs. a 16 percent slide for the midsize segment overall.

Overall U.S. car deliveries are on track to decline for the fourth straight year in 2017, and the midsize segment, long the top-selling category in the U.S., has fallen to fourth this year, behind compact crossovers, full-size pickups and compact cars.