HOW FORD’S EV PUSH COULD AFFECT THE FIESTA, FOCUS AND DAGENHAM PLANT
What happens to the Fiesta?
Small EVS are hard to make money on – a negative for the Fiesta, given Ford is doing all it can to staunch years of losses in Europe.
Ford is gradually moving the Fiesta’s German facility in Cologne to EVS from 2023 but hasn’t indicated when production of the Fiesta will stop. One possibility is that the Fiesta’s role will be taken by the Tourneo passenger version of the small Transit Courier van being made in Romania from 2023. Ford’s statement that it will carry on selling combustion-engined vans until 2035 gives it a loophole to sell this welcome cheaper-end model for a good 10 years yet.
And the Focus?
Ford pointed out that 58% of sales last year in Europe were SUVS, so the market for the Focus is dwindling. Sales nearly halved last year to dip under 100,000 in Europe.
The only way for Ford to reliably swing to profit in
Europe is to shed vehicle assembly plants, and the $2bn (£1.5bn) investment promised in the announcement to electrify Ford’s Cologne plant erases much of the remaining hope for revival of its plants in Saarlouis, where the Focus is built, and Valencia.
What about Ford’s Dagenham factory?
Any hope of a battery-fuelled revival for the east London diesel engine factory in the EV era must surely be dashed by Ford’s announcement that it will build a battery plant for commercial vehicles in Turkey with its joint-venture partner there, Koc Holdings.
Ford of Europe boss Stuart
Rowley pointed out that the company will need a lot of diesel engines by 2035, but aside from the good news last year of the switch to electric transmissions for Ford’s gearbox plant in Halewood, Merseyside, the UK’S role in Ford’s future looks to be mainly one of development of new commercial EVS at its long-term engineering centre in Dunton, Essex.