Ford has confirmed rumours that started swirling last week that its long-running small hatchback, the Fiesta, will end production next year.
Major cull of Ford models
Ford is embarking on a major cull of its model lines in the coming years as it seeks to become a fully electric car maker, in Europe, by 2030. The Focus hatchback, for many years an Irish best-seller, has already been confirmed for the chop in 2025, and now Ford has announced that the Fiesta will end production in June 2023. The larger S-Max and Galaxy MPVs will also end production, with the last ones due to be made in April 2023.
As of yet, there is no direct replacement for the Fiesta in the works, and it's likely that Ford will try to move most Fiesta customers to the pricier and more profitable Puma crossover, which will be getting a fully-electric version in 2024.
It marks the end of the Fiesta some 47 years after the car was first introduced. That first model was firmly in line with Ford's then strength of making attractive, affordable cars that were good to drive, and while that 'good to drive' quality waxed and waned at times over the years, the Fiesta has long been associated with good value motoring. It's frequently been a first car or a learner car for many.
Fiesta sales have dropped
Its demise is part of a general trend for car makers to move away from small, affordable models. Many companies - not just Ford - are struggling to make the sums of small car manufacturing add up, what with the need to invest in high-tech safety equipment, which is being increasingly demanded by the likes of EuroNCAP, as well as the need to move to electric power. While rivals such as Renault, Peugeot, and Opel all have electric-powered Fiesta rivals, Ford doesn't seem to be interested in occupying this space of the car market anymore.
Mind you, the Fiesta has really dropped off its perch in sales terms in the past two years. When Ford was first hit by the crunch in chip supplies, it essentially abandoned the Focus and Fiesta. It diverted what chips it could get to high-profit models such as the Kuga SUV, the electric Mustang Mach-E, and most importantly, the Transit van lineup. The Fiesta suffered badly as a result, tumbling out of the top-ten selling new cars both here and in the UK, even at a time when its rivals - the likes of the Peugeot 208, Opel Corsa, and Renault Zoe - are all selling strongly across Europe. Currently, the Puma is outselling the Fiesta across Europe almost three-to-one.
No more affordable Fords?
With Ford pivoting to electric power, it's quite possible that we'll never again see a Blue Oval car as affordable as a Fiesta. The Puma is already a pricier car and will become more so when the electric version arrives. The Focus will also be replaced by a crossover-style model with electric power, using VW's MEB platform, which Ford is licensing. That MEB platform will also spawn a coupe-style crossover EV in the mould of the Volkswagen ID.5.
In a statement, Ford said: "At Ford in Europe, we are accelerating our efforts to go all-in on electrification with our passenger vehicles being fully electric by 2030 - and all vehicles across our Ford portfolio by 2035. As we get ready to transition to an electric future, we will discontinue production of S-MAX and Galaxy in Valencia, Spain in April 2023 and discontinue Fiesta production in Cologne, Germany by end of June 2023. We will introduce three new exciting electric passenger vehicles and four new electric commercial vehicles in Europe by 2024. We plan to sell more than 600,000 electric vehicles in the region by 2026, and the electric passenger vehicle production at the Cologne Electrification Centre will reach 1.2 million vehicles over a six-year timeframe."
Quite where that leaves all those buyers searching for a compact, affordable, frugal hatchback remains to be seen.