Editor’s word: Ford plans to launch its new on-line used-vehicle platform in early 2021. A earlier model of this story included an incorrect timeframe.

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. will launch a brand new on-line used-vehicle platform and model early subsequent yr known as Ford Blue Benefit in a bid to provide its sellers a bigger slice of the used-vehicle gross sales pie.

Executives detailed the plans to some 8,000 dealership workers throughout a three-day digital assembly. The video format, which included displays by Govt Chairman Invoice Ford, CEO Jim Farley and different prime officers, changed the standard annual assembly that might have taken place in Las Vegas in September.

The used-car platform was among the many latest initiatives sellers realized about by means of prerecorded messages and reside classes.

“We imagine from day one it is going to be the most important supply of used Fords by far,” Mark LaNeve, Ford’s director of U.S. advertising, gross sales and repair, mentioned on a name with reporters. “If you’d like a 2015 Mustang convertible in canary yellow, we will in all probability discover it.”

He mentioned the positioning will hyperlink all 3,100 sellers’ used stock and have assured pricing and supply. It additionally may have a “new licensed pre-owned product,” LaNeve mentioned, although he declined to supply additional particulars.

LaNeve mentioned the automaker is launching its personal model as a result of roughly 3 million used Fords are bought annually, with Ford sellers accounting for roughly one-third of these transactions. Ford executives want to see that proportion rise.

“We expect utilizing digital expertise and the dimensions of our sellers, we will seize a higher share of that enterprise,” he mentioned. “The used automotive a part of the enterprise is critically vital to our sellers. It is an enormous supply of their profitability.”

Along with saying the brand new used-vehicle platform, Ford officers gave sellers details about upcoming merchandise, industrial car plans and the corporate’s rising equipment enterprise.

Ford additionally advised sellers it might increase its FordPass Rewards program by creating three totally different membership tiers.

“The principle message is: We’re headed into development mode,” LaNeve mentioned.