Ford Fiesta discontinued: E-medium crossover to replace it
In the coming years, Ford will be fully committed to electric mobility. This means the end for successful models like the Fiesta, Focus and Co. From next summer, there will be no more Fiesta.
The switch to electric mobility brings major changes for car manufacturers - not only technologically, but especially in the established model portfolio. Not entirely surprisingly, the Fiesta will say goodbye to the model portfolio next June. That's it for one of Europe's most popular small cars. After 47 years, production of the bestseller will cease in Cologne at the end of June 2023. Five-door Fiesta versions will still roll off the production line until the end of production. All ordered vehicles will still be built/delivered and Ford will keep the order books open until the remaining production volume is used up.
But it is not only for the Ford Fiesta that the end has come on the Rhine. Production of combustion engines at the Cologne plant will also come to an end with it. The production volume of the 1.0-litre petrol engine, which is currently still being manufactured at the Cologne engine plant for other Ford locations, will be transferred to the engine plant in Craiova, Romania. This is also the end for the two MPVs Ford S-Max and Galaxy, which are currently rolling off the production line at the plant in Valencia / Spain. Since the launch of the Galaxy in 1996, about 820,000 units have been sold across Europe and about 570,000 of the S-MAX as of 2006. The order books for these two model series have recently been closed.
With the end of the Ford Fiesta, there will be a new beginning in Cologne. The classic is being phased out and will be replaced by a new electric mid-size crossover. The new medium-size series will roll off the production line next year in the so-called "Cologne Electrification Center", which is currently being built on the factory premises in Cologne-Niehl. Production of fully electric passenger cars at the Cologne Electrification Center is expected to reach 1.2 million vehicles within six years.
By 2024, Ford will launch three new all-electric passenger car models and four electric commercial vehicles in Europe alone. By 2026, the Cologne-based company thus aims to sell at least 600,000 electric vehicles. In addition, Ford wants to continue to offer attractive passenger car series such as the Puma and the Kuga, including the current Kuga plug-in hybrid and, from 2024, the fully electric Puma. From 2026, Ford thus aims to have at least one plug-in or one all-electric model on offer in every model series, and from 2030 there will only be purely electrically powered passenger cars.
Since the launch of the first Ford Fiesta generation in 1976, some 18.2 million units have been built in 13 countries worldwide. Manufacturing locations have included the UK, Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, China, India and the Cologne plant. The largest Ford Fiesta markets in Europe were the UK, Italy and Germany.