(November 21, 2020) DEARBORN, Mich., — With four new nameplates entering Ford showrooms, expanded services for fleet and retail customers, and increasing availability of accessories, the message at its annual dealer meeting was clear – Ford is poised for growth. “We know 2021 is going to be a significant year for our North American business and our dealers,” said Mark LaNeve, vice president, U.S. Marketing, Sales and Service. “We are going to grow in 2021. This is the year we have been building toward.”

The three-day Built For America-themed meeting, held virtually this year with approximately 8,000 dealer staff attending, wrapped Thursday afternoon. This meeting is an annual platform for Ford leadership to share future products, initiatives and strategies, and to interact with dealers. The meeting is open to all 3,100 Ford and Lincoln dealers in the U.S.

Ford is welcoming four all-new nameplates in 2021 — Bronco, Bronco Sport, Mustang Mach-E and a not-yet-named vehicle that will fill a whitespace in the market. These additions are re-energizing dealer showrooms helping Ford grow its market share. By this time next year, Ford expects these four new nameplates will outsell its entire previous sedan portfolio.



With a sold-out First Edition, all-electric Mustang Mach-E customer deliveries begin next month. Mach-E enables Ford to reach a whole new set of customers and usher in an exciting electrification era for the company. Plus, Mustang Mach-E brings the ability for customers to begin their purchase online. Those who have submitted a retail order online will be invited to a cart and checkout experience allowing them to see transparent products and pricing available at the dealer network.

The all-new F-150 shipping soon, will put Ford in a position to further expand its leadership in the truck segment. For the F-150 reveal, millions tuned in to see what was coming and more than half a million visited the launch website in the first week alone.

Bronco Sport is making its way to dealerships now and will be followed by Bronco two- and four-door next summer. During the conference, Ford also covered the customer handling processes for the more than 190,000 reservations for the two- and four-door Bronco.

To better serve used car customers, Ford is launching an all-new used vehicle platform and brand, Ford Blue Advantage, as a digital marketplace aimed at maximizing use of digital technology and the scale of its 3,100 dealers.

FordPass Rewards, part of Ford’s ever-evolving customer experience initiative, is a customer loyalty program that is now 5.5 million members strong, delivering a value of $441 million in points and $57 million in redeemed points.

In benchmarking other best-in-class loyalty programs, Ford found a common element of the top engagement programs was the separation of customer rewards into tiers. Research determined that enabling customers to climb the ladder of a loyalty program and earn greater rewards had a significant impact on their engagement, satisfaction and loyalty.

Now FordPass Rewards is preparing to launch experiential tiers with three membership levels. Members will be able to earn their tier level by buying and servicing their vehicle, purchasing accessories, or simply by having a FordPass Rewards Visa card in their wallets.

Ford owns work. The company has been America’s best-selling commercial vehicle brand for 35 years, and its commercial business represents more than 30 percent of its volume in the U.S.

Today, Ford is encouraging dealers to grow its share of the $9 billion-per-year fleet service business and enhancing its commercial vehicle organization with Ford Commercial Solutions, which will introduce dealers to a new suite of software products designed specifically for commercial customers.

Added benefits such as a fuel card, launched in September, and Ford Telematics with multi-make capability coming next month, are intended to help dealers offer fleet customers convenient solutions to make them more efficient.

Ford also is continuing to grow the Ford Fleet National Maintenance Pricing Program, to keep pricing consistent and transparent across the country, increase the number of mobile maintenance opportunities, and develop an uptime dashboard tool to provide proactive intervention to support dealers, accelerate repair speed and help keep fleet customers on the road.

Ford continues to increase its customization options. Currently, Ford is prepared to offer 149 accessory products ready at launch for Bronco Sport. And more than 200 accessories will be ready to go when Bronco two- and four-door models arrive next year.

Now Ford is preparing to launch for all 2021 model year vehicles dealer-installed options. As plant complexity decreases, these options give dealers the opportunity to add accessories to vehicles they order for inventory. Options will appear on the window sticker and the accessories will be delivered to the dealer for installation on location.

“For the rest of our lives, we can look back on 2020 and know that no matter what got thrown at us, we worked together to overcome it and we succeeded — together,” said LaNeve. “Next year also will challenge us, but seriously, after this year I’m confident there is nothing we can’t do.”