Ford starts shipping new Bronco SUVs for consumers

June 16, 2021: -Ford Bronco SUVs are rolling off a Michigan assembly line and shipping to dealers for the first time in a quarter-century, marking a new beginning for what’s expected to be a hugely profitable product for the automaker.

Ford Motor begin shipping Bronco SUVs from the Michigan Assembly plant of the company on Monday. Inside the plant, two- and four-door versions of the Bronco in all sorts of colors were being produced at the facility near Detroit.

The Bronco is seen as one of the most critical nonelectric product launches in years for the company. It is expected to be the flagship model for a new Bronco family of vehicles.

“To see it is rolling down the line here, it’s amazing,” Bronco marketing manager Mark Grueber said on Monday in a tour of the plant. “It’s almost 25 years to the day that the last Bronco rolled down the line here. It was June 12, 1996.”

The resurrection of the Bronco, produced by Ford initially from 1965-1996, has been years in the making, which include a coronavirus-related delay earlier this year. The company originally announced plans in January the year 2017 to bring back the Bronco name.

Grueber said the plant is “trying to ramp-up production faster to satisfy the huge demand.”

Michigan Assembly is currently running on three shifts with 3,000 employees, which include 2,800 hourly United Auto Workers members. Union leaders for the plant are optimistic the vehicle will be a super hit, pushing Ford to add a third shift to the facility, producing the midsize Ranger pickup.

“For us to get an iconic brand such as the Bronco, accompanied with the Ranger, we know the profits the company is going to make off this vehicle, which is not same compared to what we’ve ever been used to,” said Scott Elliott, UAW Local 900 chairman of the assembly plant.

Before the Ranger and Bronco, Michigan Assembly produced the Ford Focus compact car. Ford ends that production of the Focus as part of a restructuring plan to concentrate on pickups and SUVs in the year 2018.

“We’re just extremely excited to be here and get the Broncos out to the customers,” Rich Shafer, plant manager of Michigan Assembly, said.

The SUV isn’t the first vehicle with the Bronco name to recently arrive in U.S. showrooms. It joins the Bronco Sport, which Ford launched at the last year’s end as a smaller, less-expensive vehicle than the off-road, open-air Bronco SUV.

The pricing for the Ford Bronco starting from about $30,000 to $60,000, which includes destination charges. The Bronco Sport ranges from nearly $28,000 to $40,000.