Ford to Pare Platforms from Nine to Five

Ford Motor Co., which slashed the number of platforms used to carry its vehicles from 30 to nine during Alan Mulally’s reign as CEO in 2006-2014, now aims to trim that number to five.

Hau Thai-Tang, who heads Ford’s product development and purchasing, tells a conference in New York City that the next level of simplification will help Ford meet its goal of eliminating $25.5 billion in costs within five years.

Thai-Tang says the company aims to design all future cars and trucks to ride on one of five modular chassis:

• body-on-frame with rear- or all-wheel drive
• unibody platform with front or all-wheel drive
• unibody with rear- or all-wheel drive
• unibody for electric vehicles
• unibody for commercial vans

Shifting to only five adjustable platforms will cut engineering and product development costs by $7 billion and shorten the time to bring a design to the marketplace by 20%. according to Thai-Tang.

The platform reduction plan that will begin in 2019 coincides with Ford’s strategy of allocating about 90% of its product capital spending on trucks, SUV/crossovers and commercial vehicles.