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Ford F-Series Super Duty prototype reduced to smoldering mess of aluminum and steel [UPDATE]

The most important bit of information you need to know after looking through our high-res gallery of images depicting a prototype 2016 Ford F-Series Super Duty pickup truck burning to the ground is that nobody was hurt. There were two engineers inside the vehicle when it caught fire, and both exited to safety.
That's the good news. The bad news is that the truck, which appears to have been testing in Death Valley, appears to be a total loss, minus, of course, whatever information Ford can glean from the conflagration - particularly tracing it back to its root cause. Besides that, we're also expecting the body of the next Super Duty to be hewn from aluminum, as is the case with its smaller brother, the brand-new F-150. Note the little aluminum droppings littering the roadway as apparent proof of that.
Our spy photographers report that it took just 21 minutes for the F-Series Super Duty to burn completely to the ground. The fire appears to have started in the driver-side front wheel well, spreading to engulf the entire front end in three minutes. We can't confirm the source of the blaze, but we're curious if the car's black vinyl cladding, meant to obscure the secrets within, contributed to the fire.

Ford readying three-row Edge for China

The next-generation Ford Edge will be available with quite a growth spurt for its debut in China next year, with newly announced plans also to build and sell a three-row version exclusively in the People's Republic. However, markets outside of there likely won't see the larger model. Ford marketing boss (and future head of Ford of Europe) Jim Farley announced the three-row version of the crossover at the Los Angeles Auto Show, according to Automotive News. To create the extra room, Ford made the Chinese-built variant about 16 inches longer than its two-row counterpart. Farley didn't specify at which of the Blue Oval's plants in the country this model would be assembled. The Explorer and forthcoming Everest already offer three rows from the Ford lineup in China, but the company thinks the market can easily support all of them. According to Farley to Automotive News, the utility segment is up 485 percent in the country since 2008. Customers in the US can still look forward to the two-row Edge hitting dealers early next year. It'll be the first model in the Blue Oval's lineup here to come standard with EcoBoost power.

Ford cuts 950 Russian jobs on weak demand

The Russian auto market, in decline for the past year and further hit by the declining value of the ruble and recent sanctions over its annexation of Crimea, has forced Ford to cut jobs and shifts at two of its joint venture plants there. Around 700 of the 2,700 total workers who build the Russian-market Focus and Mondeo will be cut at the plant in Vsevolozhsk, near St. Petersburg as it drops to a single production shift. A second plant about 700 miles away in Yelabuga, in the Tartarstan region, will lose 250 workers. That plant builds seven vehicles, including the Explorer, Kuga and Edge.
The Moscow Times says Ford has been especially hit by the market decline, the overall market losing 5.5 percent in 2013 compared to the year before, but Ford sales dropping 18 percent in 2013 year-on-year. This year isn't going any better, with The Blue Oval posting a 21-percent decline through the first two months of 2014. That's why, though the Yelabuga plant builds the CUVs that customers are moving into, even it is facing cuts.
The job cuts in Vsevolozhsk come on top four-week plant shutdown planned so that the paint and body shops can go to one shift. In a statement, the company said, "Ford Sollers remains absolutely committed to the Russian market and is confident it has the right product plan, people and assets to deliver long-term profitable growth."