General Motors stole plenty of attention at the 2010 Washington Auto Show, where the automaker announced that the Nation’s capital will be one of the pilot markets to receive the upcoming Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid. But Ford Motor Company was not without its own unique news, including news of a new small car for Mercury.
Positioned to fill a void between the smaller cars of the Ford and Lincoln lineups, Ford will be launching an all-new small car for Mercury by early 2011. Both Ford Motor Company CEO Alan Mulally and Ford President of the Americas Mark Fields have reiterated the company’s plans to make the entry-luxury Mercury brand become more visible in this lucrative segment.
Luckily for Mercury, a small car will be an easy feat to accomplish as Ford already has an all-new global small car architecture in place that’s received plenty of acclaim. Among the vehicles to use this new platform is the upcoming 2012 Ford Focus.
“The trend towards more fuel-efficient vehicles is very important, the trend toward (small) cars in general is coming back. We are responding to that,” Fields told reporters after the meeting with dealers at the annual National Automobile Dealers Association convention in Orlando, Fla.
Despite recent increases in auto sales, Mercury sales in the U.S. fell 23 percent to 92,299 units in 2009. An attractive small car offering may help to increase sales to a wider breadth of car buyers.
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