Ford entered 2021 sedan-free, which leaves room for more crossovers to join its American range. Company boss Jim Farley wrote that he hopes one of them will be an Americanized version of the Puma sold in Europe.
“[I] wish this came to North America and other markets,” Farley wrote on his personal Twitter account. He quoted a 15-second video advertising the recently-launched Puma ST that was posted by Ford’s British division.
Wish this came to NA and other markets! https://t.co/QpcXk2zokN
— Jim Farley (@jimfarley98)
February 16, 2021
Released in June 2019, and closely related to the Fiesta under the sheetmetal, the second-generation Puma is positioned near the bottom of Ford’s crossover lineup across the pond. It slots between the EcoSport and the Kuga, which is known as the Escape in America. It’s a design-led model that’s available with a gasoline- or a diesel-burning engine, and the range includes a 200-horsepower ST variant (pictured) with a sportier design.
Could the Puma pick up where the Fiesta left off? It’s not inconceivable, at least on paper. It stretches 164.8 inches long, 71.1 inches wide, and 60.5 inches tall, dimensions that make it about seven inches shorter than the Toyota C-HR and around seven inches longer than the EcoSport. It’s wider and lower than the C-HR. In Europe, one of its most direct rivals is the second-generation Nissan Juke, which is not available in the United States.
Farley is the big boss, but it takes more than a tweet to bring a car here. Even assuming the Puma can pass an American crash test, it’s likely too small to succeed in a market dominated by much bigger models.
“There are no plans [to bring the Puma to America],” a company spokesperson told Autoblog.
Farley isn’t the first CEO of a major carmaker to voice a desire to see European-market cars sold in America. In 2013, then-General Motors boss Dan Akerson said Opel’s Cascada and Adam were on his wish list. Buick ended up getting the Cascada convertible for the 2016 model year, though production ended in October 2019 after a short and unremarkable career, and the Adam (which was aimed at the Fiat 500) never sailed across the Atlantic.
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