The continuing downward turn in U.S. sales of mid-size sedans may soon claim another casualty: the Ford Fusion. Ford has canceled plans for a 2020 redesign of the Fusion, according to the Detroit News, which obtained a letter to suppliers stating as much. Although this doesn’t yet mean that the Fusion nameplate will be axed altogether, it puts its future into question as Ford reevaluates its car lineup.
At this point, it seems most likely that the current Fusion, which has been around since 2012, will continue to be sold for a few more years without major changes. A Ford spokesperson told us in a statement that “new fresh features” are coming for the Fusion in the future, which suggests a minor freshening rather than a full redesign. Sales have been declining recently as the Fusion ages and faces stiff competition from the likes of the new Honda Accord and Toyota Camry. Ford’s popular Escape crossover, meanwhile, increased sales an incremental 0.4 percent, to 308,296 units in 2017, despite the fact that it, too, has gone several years without a redesign. In 2017, Fusion sales dropped 21 percent to 209,623, a far cry from the Accord’s 322,655 units and the Camry’s 387,081 total.
The cancellation of the planned redesign raises many questions for the Fusion’s status after the current model runs its course. It’s possible that Ford could be restructuring the Fusion’s place in the lineup, and the likely cancellation of t...