2017 Ford: 4 New SUV Include a Crossover, Hybrid & Offroaders? - What to Expect

Ford is planning to introduce four all-new sport utility vehicles over the next four years in a statement released on Thursday. This is in response to the growing global popularity of SUVs and crossovers for the past years.

According to CNN Money, Ford Motors promised to come out with four completely new models in the next four years. This was announced at the Chicago auto show last Thursday. The nation's No. 2 automaker reportedly has the nation's best-selling SUV in the Explorer as well as the second best-selling crossover in the Escape.

Rather than replacing existing models, the company plans to fill out its SUV line-up with additional new offerings. The sales of SUVs and crossovers were reported to be among the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. market last year according to sales tracker Autodata. Ford expects that growth to continue with SUV share on the market rising to 40 percent from 35 percent.

In the U.S., consumers have been increasingly choosing to buy small and midsize crossovers. More so, a percentage of passenger cars is also declining.

Baby boomers and millennials were found to increasingly prefer SUVs and crossovers because they offer more space that a car with the same footprint at the same time, offering improved fuel economy over the SUVs of the past.

"Some SUVs now rival the fuel efficiency of V-6-powered midsize sedans from only a few years ago," Mark LaNeve said, reports USA Today.

According to research from Ford, Millennials' interest in buying an SUV increases as they begin thinking of starting a family. While this generation is found to secure driver's licenses later compared to prior generations, they are likely to purchase SUVs over other vehicles.

As such, the new models could be added to either of the two mainstream brands of the automaker: Ford or Lincoln. The SUVs are expected to be launched in North America, Europe, Asia or South America. There's also a possibility of launching the SUVs in all of the mentioned regions.

While Ford did not identify the segments it plans to compete in, opinions from The Motley Fool hints that it may release a new small cross over SUV to compete with Chevy's Trax. It was pointed out that General Motors has been doing well with Chevy Trax and Buick Encore while Honda is also finding a market with their similar sized HR-V.

More so, The Motley Fool also predicted that Ford may also release a couple of off-roaders to compete with Jeep. Multiple sources have reported that Ford plans to move production of Focus and C-Max in other countries and it will begin building a Ranger midsize pickup.

Check out the review of Ford SUV Platinum from Carjam TV: