Ford's Fusion Supply Can't Keep Up With Demand

William Maley

Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

June 14, 2013

The new Ford Fusion has become an instant hit with consumers. It's currently in a four car race for the best selling midsize sedan in American and has helped Ford crack into the east and west coast markets, two places where Ford has lagged in sales. With all of that success, Ford is finding itself with a Fusion supply problem.

“Inventory is going to be real tight during the summer months,” said Erich Merkle, Ford’s U.S. sales analyst to The Detroit News.

According to Wards Auto, Ford is currently sitting on a 39 day supply of Fusions. To put it another way, if Ford stopped production of the Fusion, they would have enough supply to last 5 1/2 weeks. The industry average for supply stands at 60 days. Most of this is coming from the coasts which have taken a huge liking to the Fusion.

Ford currently builds the Fusion at its Hermosillo, Mexico plant, and later this year will begin building the Fusion at its Flat Rock, MI plant. The plant in Mexico can produce about 300,000 Fusions annually; Flat Rock can add another 100,000 Fusions annually.

Ford is planning to send more Fusions out to the coasts to help stabilize inventory.

“Clearly, it's a matter of getting more stock out to those regions of the country and that's what we plan to do in the fall when we get Flat Rock on line,” said Merkle.

“Although midsize is still the best-selling segment, in terms of growth, things have stabilized. With such competitive products from the four automakers, it's going to be a very, very tight race to try and own the segment outright,” said Alec Gutierrez, senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book.

Source: The Detroit News

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at william.maley@cheersandgears.com or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.