It is the first historical manufacturer to make a hara-kiri as radical as it is unexpected in the eyes of the consumer. Others will follow in turn and will in a certain way prove the American right, faced with a gigantic investment to finance his electrical conversion, wanted by Brussels. Ford complies with eagerness despite the great road qualities of its thermal vehicles. It must be said that he never managed to impose an image other than that of a popular car, like the ancestor, the Ford T.
Is this the reason why he will, on July 7, euthanize a Fiesta in good shape again and, before two years, the Focus and then others who will suffer the same fate? Not really. In reality, Ford no longer has the means to do everything and, with a dizzying program of nine electric models by 2024 requiring colossal investments, it is making the industrial choice to stay in Europe by getting rid of the factory chains. history of Cologne Niehl, founded in 1930.
Exit therefore the eighth generation of Fiesta which is produced there. A successful model which, in the 90s, sold at a rate of 80,000 copies per year, to be compared to the 47,000 Fords, all models combined, sold last year.
After 47 years of estimated service and more than 12 million Fiestas have passed, it gives way to its semi-replacement, an inevitable 100% electric SUV, the Ford Explorer already known previously under a much more American template. In fact, as we had already pointed out here, it is an MEB platform bought from Volkswagen, because Ford had nothing ready in the boxes that was of its own.
Since the engineers had free time, the budget went to the design department who used it very well to create a sympathetic bodywork, which could condemn the Ford Puma but this successful model will endure. Its thermal versions, and in particular the clever E85, will be supported by the arrival in 2024 of the first 100% Ford electric version with more compact dimensions than the Explorer (4.20 m against 4.45 m).
In other words, the brand with the blue oval is accelerating fully on the electric but paying dearly for the transition to Volkswagen for this major technical borrowing (at least 70% of the finished car) from the Explorer. The Cologne-Niehl plant, already converted to electric construction, earning it the name “Ford Electric Vehicle Center”, is sized to produce 250,000 vehicles per year alone. Ford believes in it since it thinks of doubling its sales in Europe in the next six years in order to reach 1.2 million copies.
A prognosis that leaves you perplexed but, if it comes true, will fill the pockets of Volkswagen. At this point, it’s unclear where the other models with in-house electric solutions will come from, as Ford, close to dooming the Focus, is already negotiating the sale of its Saarlouis plant that produces it. Well placed in the negotiations, a Chinese manufacturer eager to locate where Ford is relocating. He understood that the control of designations of origin will soon be a bottleneck for “made in China” cars sold in Europe and that, to escape it, it will be necessary to produce locally… which also implies the conditions economic and social.
