In case you haven't heard, Ford is currently undergoing some significant internal restructuring as it prepares for the world of tomorrow where the streets will be filled with EVs, autonomous cars, and other advanced mobility technologies. The automaker has already made some significant decisions, such as eliminating its entire US car lineup, including the Focus and Fusion, in favor of more SUVs. The Mustang, of course, is unaffected.

This domestic restructuring will also expand to international markets as Automotive News has learned. Specifically, Ford "will stop selling the Explorer in dozens of overseas markets in a bid to maximize profits."

This directive does not affect the current generation Explorer but rather the upcoming redesign. Where will it not be sold? If you live in Cuba, Iceland, Thailand, Mongolia, Iraq, and Egypt, you're out of luck. But it doesn't appear Ford will be missing out much in those markets. Ford's president of global operations, Joe Hinrichs, said at a recent conference that the carmaker sells fewer than 100 of the crossovers per year in those countries.

"The cost of doing business there wasn't worth the trip for less than 100 vehicles," Hinrichs said. "Digging into the data on the part numbers and build configurations exposes things like this and allows us to be more profitable and not spend the engineering resources in markets to do that."

For those who don't live in any of those countries, it sounds like the next Explorer is really going to be quite something. Hinrichs added that features like blind-spot monitoring technology will be standard. Further reductionist packaging, in order to cut down on costs, will see it offered with 25 exterior configurations, instead of the 139 offered now. All of the mirror caps will be gloss black instead of matching the exterior color, too.

Ford has yet to announce when the 2020 Explorer, which shares a platform with the also upcoming Lincoln Aviator, will be unveiled, but we predict it'll either be at LA or Detroit.