Ford to cancel next-gen Edge, forecaster says

Ford Motor Co. is canceling plans to build the next-generation Edge, a move that bodes ill for the automaker’s Oakville, Ontario, assembly plant, a key source for Ford and Lincoln crossover output, according to AutoForecast Solutions, a U.S.-based global forecasting and consulting firm.

“Unless Ford decides on a different program to replace the Edge, there’s no future for Oakville,” which employs 4,200 hourly workers, said Sam Fiorani, vice president of global forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions.

Ford Motor Co. declined to comment.

Last year, Ford ended production of the Ford Flex and Lincoln MKT crossovers at the Oakville plant, and, according to Fiorani, the automaker plans to shift output of the Lincoln Nautilus to China in 2023.

As Ford’s final Canadian-built vehicle, the Edge’s cancellation puts the Oakville plant at risk of closing, Fiorani said. Ford’s Unifor labor contract covering the Oakville plant, as well as two engine plants in Windsor, Ontario, expires in September.

After negotiating the closure of a Romeo, Mich., engine plant, the two Canadian engine plants were to be the only sources of the automaker's 5-liter and PV-8 family of V-8 engines, Fiorani said in a video report posted Sunday.

The next-generation Edge was supposed to have been launched in June 2023 on a new platform, said Fiorani. But tepid retail sales as well as an increasingly crowded midsize crossover segment, with new or planned entries from Chevrolet, Honda and Toyota, contributed to Ford’s decision to cancel the new program, he said.

“The Edge is more of a fleet vehicle, you don’t see many of them in people’s driveways, but they still sell 150,000 a year in North America.”

U.S. sales of the Edge last year tallied 138,515, up three per cent..

The Edge is also being squeezed out by Ford’s upcoming slate of new utilities, including the Bronco, Bronco Sport and the updated Escape. “All those new models and a couple of others that are EVs and non-EVs coming over the next three to five year are all filling in the same space [as the Edge],” said Fiorani.

Although the Oakville plant is the global source for the Edge, European sales have not met company expectations, he added. The vehicle is also produced in China, however there is no indication yet that Ford will be canceling the vehicle’s overhaul for that market, said Fiorani.

Ford’s decision could be a ploy for Detroit 3 contract negotiations set to being in the fall, said Fiorani.

“The cards that Unifor holds is that Ford has two engine plants in Windsor, Ont., that are very key to the Super Duty, and the Super Duty is very key to Ford’s profit,” he said.

With the planned closure of the engine factory in Romeo, Mich., the Windsor plants are expected to become the sole source for the large engines that power the F Series trucks and Ford Mustang, said Fiorani.

It wouldn't be the first time AutoForecast Solutions was correct about the demise of a Canadian auto assembly plant. It previously forecasted the end of vehicle assembly at GM Oshawa.