Ford Verve
Ford is in need of a small car. Sales trends show that small cars’ rise in popularity and the influx of millennial drivers (today’s teens and 20-somethings) will come to a peak around 2012. Hopefully Ford will deliver a real-life version of this concept by its own 2010 target date.
The Verve is going to be a global car, and this concept is similar to ones shown in Asia and Europe. By selling variations of the same car globally, Ford can afford to offer a high-quality — think Mini Cooper quality, not Toyota — small car here in the U.S., where it’s been hard to make money on vehicles in this class.
There aren’t a lot of ridiculous concept car oddities stuffed into the Verve. Instead, we get to ogle the racy lines and radical headlights. The dimensions are quite interesting, though. The Verve concept is roughly 2 feet shorter in length than a four-door Toyota Yaris, but offers similar leg- and headroom in the front. Ford hopes to throw a fuel-efficient four-cylinder under the hood to get the thing moving, but it’s not saying if it will be a new power plant or something borrowed from the past.