Production of the Ford Focus will end in 2025 as Ford pivots its attention to electric vehicles, the company has said.
The end of the family car is also likely to mean the end of Ford production in Saarlouis, Germany, although Ford stopped short of saying the plant would be closed.
“We’re seeking other alternative opportunities for vehicle production at Saarlouis, including [selling to] other manufacturers. We don't have in our planning cycle an additional model that goes into Saarlouis,” Ford of Europe head Stuart Rowley told journalists on Wednesday.
Saarlouis lost out to Ford’s production facility in Valencia, Spain, to build vehicles on the company’s planned new global EV platform, starting later this decade.
Ford gave no indication whether the EVs to be built in Valencia will be smaller or larger than the compact crossover that go into production in Cologne, Germany, in 2023 on the Volkswagen Group’s MEB platform.
However, the fact that the platform is global suggests that they will be larger models and not a replacement for the Ford Fiesta.
The Focus, once Britain’s best-seller, fell out of the top 10 in the first five months of the year, after its place taken by the second-placed Ford Puma and seventh placed Ford Kuga, both SUVs.
Ford gave no indication as to whether the Focus name will continue into the electric era.
The good news for Valencia in winning the right to build EVs to replace the Kuga, S-Max and Galaxy was tempered by the information that Ford will make “significant” job cuts at the plant.
“The reality of the industry is that the production of EVs will require less people,” Rowley said.
Ford currently employs 6000 in Valencia and 4600 in Saarlouis. Overall, it employs 41,000 in Europe, but it has been reducing its headcount as it tries to swing the region back to consistent profitability after years of losses.
Ford has been one of the manufacturers most vocal about switching to electric in Europe, and it will no longer sell ICE cars in the region after 2030.
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Not that the Ford Focus is a cheap car any more (just like every car on the market these days) but it does look like we're all going to be forced to lease ridiculously expensive "up-market" £50k plus cars that we'll never own going forward.
As I resent paying that much for a form of transport, I will be running my current car into the ground instead of purchasing such a vehicle.
And after my current car dies, there's always public transport............oh, wait a minute..........
Yep, outrageous price rises for the last 10 years and more to come. The motoring press barely notices as the cars they get are all lease/freebies, but it's completely out of hand when the average national wage barely nets a basic Focus. Any EV with a workable range is £40k, bar the odd outlier.
Welcome to the club!!! (The Ex-Ford Plant Club, just like Southhampton, Dagenham, Avely, Halewood). Ford obviously didn't get any mega bucks from the German government to keep Saaloius open. Therefore it took the cheaper option & decided to keep Valancia going, where wage rates are almost half that of overpriced Germany.
This only makes sense if Ford have a replacement for the Focus, one which is hybrid. EVs are expensive, and a Focus is supposed to be a generic family car, cheap to buy, own and run. The only eqivalence you can get at the moment is a hybrid and there's probably nowhere on the Focus platform to fit that in.