Ford Joining with Airstream Trailers for Unique Crossover
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By Steve Miller
DETROIT – Already looking to improve what will eventually become a crossover market deluged with generic vehicles, Ford is partnering with Airstream, that staple of transient living, on a concept vehicle that hauls seven people in comfort.
The Ford Airstream concept recalls the Ford Fairlane concept from 2005, which drew whistles of admiration for its boxy yet modern feel. J Mays, Ford’s chief of design, looks at the model as “emotionalizing the idea of moving seven people.”
“The only vehicle that has ever done that is the VW bus, because it’s hard to come up with something that does that and make it appeal to emotion,” said Mays, who arrived at the possibility of the concept after meeting Airstream CEO Bob Wheeler at last year’s auto show in Detroit The two connected on an idea.
“If Ralph Lauren were to do an East Coast, Hampton’s version of something like this for the upper class, this is what it would look like,” Mays told Brandweek.
For Airstream, it gives the 75-year-old company—best known for its steel-encased trailers that evoke 50s-style Americana—a new profile.
“We still get the question, ‘You guys still makes those?’” said Airstream CEO Wheeler. “This presents an opportunity to broaden our horizons. Any time a company like Ford comes to you, you come out thinking more broadly.”
The vehicle well may be the antidote to the minivan, which has fallen on tough times in the past several years. Both Ford and General Motors have dropped most of their entries in the waning segment, which numbered about 1.2 million units sold last year, or about 7% of the market.
“I want to think that families can have their entire brood back there and enjoy driving it at the same time,” Mays said.
Based on the same platform as the Ford Edge crossover, the Ford Airstream has no nods to the past, despite the 75-year heritage of Airstream.
Which wouldn’t rule out a future co-brand effort in the auto industry, even if the Ford concept doesn’t make production.
“We didn’t seek this out, Ford came to us,” Wheeler said. “And I think that any company with that kind of vision we would entertain.”