Design Development: Ford Edge concept

Vehicle type mid-size SUV Concept
Length 4,689mm
Width (exc. Mirrors) 2,119mm
Height 1,699mm
Wheelbase 2,849mm

Chief exterior designer George Bucher
Exterior design manager Kevin George
Senior exterior designers Steve Gilmore, Shawn Wehrly
Interior design manager Hak Soo Ha
Interior lead designers Yuichi Ogura & Zulf Ali
Technical build manager Bruce Youngs

Project started January 2013
Project completed October 2013
Launch Los Angeles Auto Show 2013

The second-generation Edge mid-size crossover will be a global product, sold  in North America, Europe, China and South America by 2015. The 2013 LA Auto Show concept prefaced its arrival closely. 

Sitting below the Explorer and above the Escape (or Kuga in Europe), the original Edge was introduced in 2006. According to interior design manager Hak Soo Ha, its purpose was “to be the Mustang of SUVs.” 

However, some elements of the original Edge's design missed the mark, according to exterior design manager Kevin George. He says: "The Edge has been successful and we like the way it looks, but as it came out in 2006 it wasn't part of the new Ford brand aesthetic. Our first task was to bring it into line with the new Ford branding and ‘future' the rest."

Both Ha and George's teams were involved in the second-gen production model, making the transition to the concept easier. Despite this familiarity, George concedes that judging the 'level of stretch' between the 'concept' and production model was difficult:

"I have to say it was a little tricky because it's not too long before we start talking about a production car. You don't want to send two different messages or people will be disappointed. For me the reason [for the concept] is we have this idea and want it validated. A lot of things are locked in already, but there are still things you can do to mitigate negative feedback. Fortunately, we haven't had any."

George describes the concept sketching done in January 2013 as "sort of a part-time activity" alongside his production work, but says that by February "we got it nailed down."

Doing the concept alongside the production model meant data about the latter was available, but George says they didn't lean too heavily on it for the concept. "We knew what the production car data looked like then but I think to just start with that data is doing a disservice to us and the customer. We had one last time to go back and check to make sure we didn't leave anything on the table. If we started with the production data I think we'd have been cheating ourselves out of that process."

After sketching - including some slightly sportier designs that were rejected as they would then leave no room for a potential Sport version later - the concept went straight to full-scale via a process George says was unusual for him:

"Typically you go into quarter scale, scan it and build data from that. What we did was put the renderings into the digital environment and just build it. Our guys are getting very good at working from that."

Indeed, one early sketch has what looks like data superimposed on it but George clarifies, "we actually imported the sketches as image planes in our Alias data, then built the data and matched it to those images."

George says they were cutting clay by April and had all the data wrapped up by the end of June so could start shipping pieces to Special Projects Inc to build. “I think the biggest thing we helped them with, other than digital data, was to give them the moulds. We made the moulds in our shop, cast the clay and sent them to SPI to make up.”

By Guy Bird