Ford Has Abandoned Plans for the Fusion Active: Report

Ford shocked everyone in early 2018 when the company announced it would stop selling small cars and sedans. Eventually, every passenger car except the Mustang got the axe. But then came the rumor that the Ford Fusion would return as a Subaru-style high-riding sedan. Now, if a report from Ford Authority is to be believed, that’s no longer the case, as Ford may have thrown in the towel on the development of the Fusion Active.

The Ford Fusion said goodbye in 2020. It was one of the few family sedans left on the market. But we had a couple of years of warning. Back in 2018, things at Ford were getting real. First came word that a Fusion refresh was canceled, most likely due to low sales (even though Ford sold over 130,000 Fusions in 2019 and almost 91,000 the year it was canned). Then came the huge announcement that Ford would stop selling sedans and small cars entirely in North America, save for the Mustang and Focus Active (which never came). Then a few months after that, sources speaking to Bloomberg said that the Fusion would be coming back as a crossover-like wagon. The name held some weight with dealers who didn’t want to lose out on sales to customers familiar with the Fusion badge.

But none of that seems to be the case anymore. Ford Authority reports that Ford is thinking about giving up on development of the Fusion Active. No reason was given, though it might have something to do with the fact that Ford has such a crossover-heavy lineup, and yet another high-riding family five-door might have stepped on some toes.

The Fusion Active was supposed to be based on the admittedly handsome Chinese-market Evos, seen above. It would have had slightly different styling, wheels, and body cladding to sell it to consumers as a crossover, of course. But something like that might have infringed on Escape sales, a vehicle that just got its own major redesign.

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While the Evos has been spotted testing around Michigan and Colorado, we’ll have to wait and see whether or not Ford moves forward with yet another crossover for the North American market.