Ford’s new Focus, on show in Paris, is “lower and sleeker” than the outgoing model “which won’t suit everyone”, Ford of Britain boss Nigel Sharp said.
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This is where the new C-Max comes in, he added, and how the automaker’s C platform strategy makes sense. “The five-seat C-Max might suit them better and we can now also offer the seven-seat Grand version which we didn’t have before.”
Ford is expecting around 20,000 UK sales a year for new C-Max and Grand C-Max, up from an average of 10-12,000 a year when only a five-seat version was available.
“Also, we never sold previous C-Max to fleets; it’s a proposition we can now afford to make,” he said.
But he admitted that the big challenge will be to educate both dealers and customers about how the strategy adds up. “We have a job to do there, but I think C-Max could surprise all of us.”
