Ford’s plan to kill off its cars has been a perplexing thing since news of it came out in early 2018, and remains so nearly two years later. That’s underscored by Ford’s own sales reports, because even as crossover and SUV sales continue to skyrocket, the Ford Fusion sedan still pours out of the dealership lot.
The Fusion, the last we heard, will live through at least 2021 before it becomes a victim of Ford’s carpocalypse—a killing of Ford’s cars, which will spare the Mustang, as a result of the demand for crossovers, trucks and SUVs. But Ford announced its annual 2019 sales on Monday, and Fusion numbers are still remarkable in both the context of Ford’s lineup and in comparison to other sedans on the market.
In fact, only six models—or families of models, in the F-Series’ case—did six-digit annual sales in 2019, and the Fusion was one of them. It was the fourth-highest seller of the year for Ford, according to the numbers.
The Mustang, by comparison, did 72,489 in sales last year. But the Fusion didn’t just do well in terms of Ford models—it also held up well against other sedans, even if sedan sales in general are down. (The plummet is easy to see with many sedans: In 2014, Ford sold 306,860 Fusions.)
We most recently heard that the Fusion’s death in Ford’s carpocalypse would be long and excruciating, as Automotive News reported midway through 2019 that a Ford spokesperson was back and forth on when exactly it would go. The first word from the spokesperson was that Fusion production would end sometime this year, before they went back on the statement to say that Ford will build the car “at least into the 2021 calendar year.”
We do at least know that the Fusion’s death is further out than some of Ford’s other cars, like the Focus, which is already wiped from Ford’s website and did zero sales in the last quarter of 2019.
But it’s a wonder why the Fusion should have an expiration date at all—aside from a brazen marketing plan to combat slowing small-car sales—because the Fusion is doing just fine. It’s doing well, even.