It’s been 25 years since the last Ford Bronco was made. Ford is bringing the brand back, with the unveiling of three new off-road-oriented SUVs under the Bronco name.
At an online event Monday night, Ford introduced the 2021 Bronco, which will come in a two- and a four-door version, and the smaller Bronco Sport. The new Broncos are engineered for hard off-road driving and include features designed to make it easier to get far from civilization and even stay there for a while.
The Bronco, which will come in a two- and a four-door version, and the smaller Bronco Sport will compete directly with Fiat Chrysler’s Jeep line of off-road vehicles. The market for rugged SUVs, which Jeep currently dominates, is growing twice as fast as SUVs overall, Ford executives have said.
The larger Broncos will be available with 35-inch off-road tires and will be able to drive through water nearly 3 feet, 10 inches deep. It has independent front suspension, unlike its main competitor, the Jeep Wrangler. Independent suspension, used on almost all modern passenger vehicles, generally provides a smoother ride and better on-road handling than a single solid axle. It still has a solid axle in the back though, like most pickup trucks, a design suited to hard use.
Like the Wrangler, both the two- and four-door Bronco will have a removable roofs and doors. Buyers will be able to choose either a hard roof that can be removed in sections, a cloth top, or both. Unlike the Wrangler, though, the Bronco’s doors will fit inside the vehicle after being removed.
The Bronco will be available with a choice of either a 10-speed automatic or seven-speed manual transmission. (The manual transmission will have six gears for ordinary driving, plus a seventh for low speed off-road driving.) It will be powered by either a 270-horsepower 2.3-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine or a 310-horsepower 2.7-liter turbocharged V6.
While all of the new Bronco SUVs are designed for hard off-road use, the Bronco Sport isn’t quite as hard-core in its capabilities. It also has more convenience features than the more truck-like Bronco. While it’s based on engineering that’s similar to car-like crossover SUVs, Ford says that it’s still intended for serious off-road use. Ford engineers boasted of the off-road testing the prototypes have been put through, including driving through deep sand, up steep inclines and crawling across boulder-strewn trails.
The Bronco Sport, available only as a four-door SUV, does not offer a removable roof. Instead of competing directly with the Jeep Wrangler, it’s aimed more squarely at the Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk. It has a number of features intended to make it an ideal camping vehicle, like standard cargo-carrying roof rails designed to hold a rooftop tent. The rear liftgate has strong spotlights to illuminate the area around the back of the vehicle at night, and a cargo organizer tray in the back can slide out to be used as a table. The back portion of the roof is raised higher than the front, allowing enough room to store two bicycles upright with their front wheels removed.
Inside, there are zippered pockets on the backs of the front seats, as well cloth straps for hanging gear. There are also storage compartments under the back seats.
The Bronco Sport has independent suspension in both the front and back, like most vehicles intended for street driving, however it wil also be able to drive through almost two feet of water, according to Ford. It will have 28.5-inch off-road tires as standard equipment, but special First Edition models will have 29-inch tires with deeper off-road treads.
Buyers will be able to choose from either a 181-horsepower 1.5 liter turbocharged 3-cylinder engine or a 2.0-liter 245-horsepower 4-cylinder engine. Both engines will come with an eight-speed automatic transmission. In some versions, drivers will be able to select gears using steering wheel paddles.
All of the new Bronco models will have selectable driving modes for various terrain. They’re called GOAT modes, for “goes over any type of terrain.” (GOAT was Ford’s code name for the original Bronco while it was under development in the early 1960s.) Modes include Normal, Slippery, Mud/Ruts and Rock Crawl.
There’s also Trail Control, a sort of cruise control for off-road driving. With this feature, the SUV can move along at a set low speed while the driver can concentrate on just steering the vehicle rather than dealing with the gas and brakes. These sorts of features are available on a number of other off-road SUVs.
Both the Bronco and the Bronco Sport have blocky square-cornered designs that clearly draw from their 1960s predecessors. The shape also provides a real benefit in off-road driving, Ford designers explained. Drivers can easily see the peaks of the front fenders to know where their wheels are, something that’s important to know when driving between boulders or around a steep drop-off, a design element that goes back to classic off-road vehicles ranging from the original Land Rover and Mercedes-Benz G-Class as well as classic Broncos. Additionally, an available camera system can provide a front bumper view of the terrain just ahead.
The Bronco Sport will be available later this year. The full-size Bronco won’t be available until next spring, but Ford is taking US$100 deposits immediately for both the Bronco and the Bronco Sport. Prices for the Bronco Sport will start at $26,660. Prices for the two-door Bronco will start at about $28,500 and $33,200 for the four-door. Ford has not yet announced pricing for the four-door Bronco or the Bronco Sport.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
