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Ford CEO Jim Farley has mentioned the automaker is making an off-road “supercar for gravel”, arguing the normal on-road supercar market is “fully over-served”.
Talking on the Scorching Pursuit podcast by information outlet Bloomberg, the Ford CEO – recent from judging and collaborating at Monterey Automobile Week in California – mentioned he’s requested Ford engineers to develop a wild, paradigm-shifting off-road efficiency mannequin.
“Nobody’s ever constructed a supercar for gravel, high-speed sand, filth. I feel that might be an important course for our firm,” Mr Farley mentioned.
“I’m speaking a couple of Dakar idea – like a supercar – 1000hp [745kW], partially electrical, completely digitally enabled.
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“You convey your cellphone, you get the [2026 Red Bull Ford Formula One driver] Max Verstappen settings; all the things’s adjustable – the damping, the experience peak, and it’s absolutely able to doing a full-on race, but it surely’s not a pick-up truck.
“I’m pondering actually deeply about it, and often that turns into one thing,” Mr Farley mentioned.
The Dakar occasion is the gruelling long-distance rally – which began as a race between Paris, France, and Dakar, Senegal in Africa, which Ford entered in 2025 hoping to problem Toyota.
Ford races a wild prototype car within the occasion referred to as the Raptor T1+ after its Ranger, Bronco and F-150 Raptors.
“That’s why I need [Ford] to win Dakar … I feel that’s the proper method for Ford to innovate the supercar enterprise,” mentioned Mr Farley.
It’s not the primary time the Ford chief has talked about a Raptor-related supercar, with suggestive feedback after this 12 months’s Dakar occasion – the place Ford completed third behind two Toyotas – however that is essentially the most element the Ford boss has gone into thus far.
Whereas praising the revered standing of the Porsche model, notably its iconic 911 sports activities automobile lineup which incorporates the brand new, extra rugged Dakar, Mr Farley mentioned the chance for the US automaker isn’t to make one other 911 – or perhaps a sooner Mustang.
“I really feel just like the supercar market is totally overserved,” the Ford boss mentioned.
“Individuals are simply shopping for these vehicles to take a position as if it’s a inventory or one thing. I don’t need flippers; I don’t need buyers shopping for our vehicles.”
For the flagship Mustang GTD, Ford has a vetting course of for patrons wishing to purchase one of many 300 it would produce – an identical course of which was utilized to the GT two-seat supercar it launched to showrooms in 2017.
“We will all the time do one other fancy supercar, however I’m difficult my group to assume in a different way,” Mr Farley mentioned.
“What I’m extra fascinated by is – there isn’t a Porsche of off-road, and I’m shocked that folks don’t take into consideration that, and I’m very fascinated by that.”
Mr Farley, at present on a Bronco Off-road journey on the Colorada River within the US state of Utah, is a self-confessed petrol head and automobile fanatic whose current headlines embody declaring Ford will not make “boring vehicles”.
He has additionally publicly criticised “two-row” SUVs – such because the top-selling Toyota RAV4, a rival to Ford’s personal Escape – calling them “generic”.
In tapping his ardour, Mr Farley has mentioned the long-lasting American model will take a look at leveraging its icons – resembling Mustang, F-Collection and Bronco – as a substitute of constructing two-row generic SUVs.
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