Ford CEO Jim Farley is intent on delivering something he says no other automaker currently gets close to.
In short, Ford believes it doesn’t have a clear off-road rival – and Mr Farley says that’s exactly the opportunity. Speaking at this year’s Dakar Rally, he said the global off-road vehicle market is wide open, and Ford intends to dominate it.
“If you want to be the Porsche of off-road you’ve got to win the Dakar,” Farley said bluntly in the bivouac – or mobile town – that follows the Dakar Rally around Saudi Arabia.
Mr Farley said the company’s ambition is not just to compete in the off-road vehicle space, but to dominate it in the same way Porsche has defined on-road performance for decades.
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Just as the Nurburgring is an unofficial proving ground for so many performance car brands – Porsche included – it’s the desert sands and rocks of Saudi Arabia that are the proving ground for what is fast becoming the heart of Ford’s product lineup.
Mr Farley believes there is no single, undisputed leader in off-road enthusiast vehicles; no brand that commands the same loyalty, aspiration and technical authority that Porsche or Ferrari enjoy on the road. And he sees that absence not as a problem, but as an opening.
“Unlike on-road enthusiasts, the auto business has no obvious off-road leader in the off-road space,” he said. “When someone who loves the joy of driving off-road and they want to have an enthusiast product they pick Ford to buy and they also root for Ford to win.”
Ford’s plan to fill that void hinges on a fundamental rethink of how racing fits into its business.
Under Mr Farley, motorsport is no longer treated as a marketing exercise, but as a direct input into product development – particularly off-road racing, where durability, suspension and real-world toughness matter more than showroom specs.
That philosophy has elevated the Dakar Rally to a central role in Ford’s global identity.
Mr Farley has described Dakar as the company’s “North Star” in motorsport – the ultimate proving ground for the attributes he wants customers to experience in vehicles such as the Ranger Raptor, Bronco and future off-road ‘halo’ models.
“We want to dominate not only racing but to translate the racing into what we offer customers to buy as an enthusiast off-road brand,” Mr Farley said.
To support that ambition, Ford has restructured its recently rebranded Ford Racing division (it was previously called Ford Performance) into a more independent organisation, with a mandate that extends beyond competition and into road-going production vehicles.
For Mr Farley, Ford’s old strategy – in which racing existed largely to generate excitement and headlines – no longer makes sense.
“For a long time in our industry racing was… basically done for marketing and that’s not how we look at it anymore,” he said. “Racing is no longer just an expense, it’s what we do – it’s our business.”
The aim is to create a tighter feedback loop between what Ford races and what it sells.
Ford has already embedded its own engineers in racing programs such as Dakar and its upcoming return to Formula 1 (as an engine supplier to Red Bull) to ensure a direct line to the rest of its product development team.
Mr Farley says it’s all about ensuring customers can “have a piece of Dakar when they drive their Ford”.
That approach mirrors the playbook used by brands such as Porsche, where motorsport credibility and road-car desirability are deeply intertwined.
But Mr Farley is clear that Ford’s version will be built around off-road capability, not circuit lap times.
“We think that there’s enough customers who buy enthusiast products – off-road and on-road – that it can be a vibrant part of our company’s business,” he said.
Crucially, Mr Farley sees this as a long-term brand transformation rather than a single product play.
Ford, he argues, doesn’t need to serve every price point in every market anymore. Instead, it can lean into enthusiast-led segments where emotional connection, engineering credibility and motorsport success reinforce one another.
And in the off-road world, Mr Farley believes the biggest prize is still there for the taking.
If Ford can win Dakar, translate that success into vehicles that customers can buy, and build a loyal global fan base around off-road performance, Mr Farley’s vision could well become reality – even if that currently remains quite a stretch target.
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