XR (Ford Australia) - Exports

Exports

Australian Falcon exports have traditionally been confined to right-hand-drive countries in the Asia-Pacific region, such as New Zealand (where Ford New Zealand sometimes devised local trim models, such as the XR Falcon 600 and the XA Luxury V8), and Pacific Island nations like Papua New Guinea and Fiji. New Zealand assembly of the Falcon began at Petone in the early 1960s and moved to the new plant in Wiri in 1973. The cars generally followed Australian specification but the model line was limited and factory options little more than automatic transmission though the 1979 XD V8 was the first locally assembled car to offer air conditioning as a build option. New Zealand assembly ceased in the early 1990s after which all Falcons sold locally have been fully imported from Australia.

The only significant export market for the Falcon outside of Oceania has been South Africa, where it was released in 1996 after an absence of over 20 years, but was dropped in 2003. Some limousines and hearses (inc. LPG-only powered Utes) are exported to the UK by Coleman Milne, who used to convert European-made Granadas and Scorpios for the same purposes.

Hong Kong also imported a small batch of LPG-powered AU Falcon station wagons for trial as taxis, and although it initially found favour in luggage capacity with operators when compared to mainstream taxis like the Toyota Comfort, it has not seen success there, citing higher operating costs.

Ford had intended developing the car with left hand drive export potential, and received federal and state government grants to assist, but in October 2007 it was announced by Ford Australia president Tom Gorman that the left-hand-drive Falcon project was to be abandoned and the export incentive grant money would be directed to construction of the Ford Focus small-car in Australia. In the end, the Focus project did not proceed and Asia-Pacific production of that model was instead started at a new plant in Thailand in June 2012. As the FG Falcon utilizes much of the previous model's architecture, converting it to left hand drive would have been a costly and time consuming process.

Ford Australia has stated that they have considered exporting the FG Falcon to China and the Middle East. Sales to the Middle East of previous models were not feasible as the market was already served by the Ford Crown Victoria, which has been discontinued.