But Ford needs to gain market share and not just merely maintain its current 800,000 unit per year volume, if it expects to make up the loss in profits due to the increase in build costs. If Ford increases the F-Series' MSRP to make up for the difference it could lose its price edge in the market, exacerbating to the problem. And how do customer incentives fit into the picture? They almost always erode profits further.
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| Dubbed "The most successful vehicle in the history of automobiles," by Ford CEO Bill Ford, the next generation F-Series truck has big shoes to fill. (Photo: Ford Motor) |
Taking part in Tuesday's launch event Ford Motor CEO Bill Ford is all too aware of how important this new truck, what he called "the most successful vehicle in the history of automobiles," is to his company's bottom line.
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| With everything riding on the new F-150, Ford faces new competition from Nissan and their brand new full-size Titan pickup. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
Ford mentioned, "In the last 50 years, nothing has been more essential to our success, or more important to us, then the F series."
Just when the new F-150 is more important to Ford's success than ever before, Nissan will introduce not one, but two all-new competing full-size pickup models, the Titan King Cab and Titan Crew Cab. While the Japanese company isn't expected to dig much of a hole into Big 3 sacred ground, it could be the speed bump on the road to the blue oval's profitability.