The next Ford Falcon, due next year, is "a few weeks" ahead of development schedule. "All of our efforts are going into Falcon," said Ford chief Tom Gorman. However, he has ruled out an early launch for the car, despite the current model haemorrhaging sales. In the first two months of the year Ford is down 1250 sales or 2.6 per cent market share. Only strong sales of Fiesta, Focus and new Ranger have stemmed the company bleeding from the 2304 drop in Falcon sales. "Falcon will continue to be a challenge in our final year of BF Mark II," Gorman said. He would also not reveal whether Falcon will have a diesel option at launch. "My first (priority) would be LPG. It is critically important to us," he said. "Diesel would be next ahead of hybrid. Ethanol also is a player." Gorman welcome the Federal Opposition's proposal to implement a $500 million Green Car Innovation Fund but said it was "too early" to say how it would affect production. Gorman also ruled out a facelift to Territory before the next Falcon is released. "We're not going to change the face of the Territory this year," he said. "We're going all out on Falcon and Falcon Ute." With the small and light car segments booming largely on sales of cheaper models, Ford's strategy seems to be to bring in new upmarket models. Ford announced it would this year introduce a Fiesta Zetec five-door, Fiesta XR4, Focus Coupe-Cabriolet, Focus turbo-diesel and Focus styling updates. Gorman ruled out a price war on Fiesta and Focus. "We're not about bringing in Korean product and rebadging it," he said, referring to Expensive Daewoo importing Korean-made Daewoo Barinas and Vivas, and rebadging them as Holdens. "Our strategy is about building great driving cars. "We're not into dropping the price. We stand by the product and what it delivers." The Courier-Mail