Ford’s marketing chief in Germany, Christian Weingaertner, told Automotive News Europe at a press event that the company plans on dropping the Focus in addition to the smaller Fiesta (which has also been long dead in America, much to our collective chagrin) to concentrate on SUVs, crossovers and even pickup trucks in Europe where the profit margins are higher, as they are in America. Eventually, in Europe, that means an all-electric lineup by 2030, based on current projections. According to that story, Ford will launch its revised lineup with the slogan “Adventurous Spirit,” which aims to capture the “American values” of “freedom, outdoors and adventure.” The lineup will include things we’re familiar with like the Explorer, Ranger truck, Mustang, the Bronco, and the smaller Puma crossover, which we do not get and is based on the Fiesta. In other words, Ford in Europe is about to do what it did in America years ago: phase out the smaller cars and tell buyers they need to invest in pricier trucks, SUVs and crossovers if they want a new vehicle. The Fiesta will stick around until next year and the Focus dies in 2025. After that, if you want a new Ford in Europe, buy a Puma. Ford has long had a big presence in Europe, and one that’s yielded a wide variety of interesting compact cars and performance vehicles unique to that market. But as this story notes, and crucially, it’s struggled to be profitable in Europe for some time, much as General Motors had trouble there with the Opel and Vauxhall divisions it ultimately offloaded to Stellantis. Some of these SUV-centric moves feel like Ford’s trying to better compete with Jeep in Europe; that brand has actually had a lot of success there in recent years as customers buy into its rugged, outdoors-y image. Finally, the industry-wide electric vehicle transformation will be expensive. Automakers have to pay for it somehow. In America, that answer, pretty much across the board, has been to get customers into margin-happy big trucks and SUVs while slashing the cheaper, less profitable models. (There’s something ironic about our green future being financed by Ram, Suburban and F-150 sales, but hey, the money has to come from somewhere.)
Your new sensible European compact car. But there’s a bigger, and slightly more concerning point to be made here from this news. Increasingly in America, the new car market is a market for rich people; between supply chain crunches and trends I listed above, the average new car price has skyrocketed to more than $48,000. Want a nice, cheap, new car? More and more, the answer from automakers is “too bad, buy a nice used car instead—if you can find one.” New cars are increasingly out of reach for many people, except those with deep pockets or those willing to take on huge payments over long terms. Now, that trend seems to be coming to Europe as well. And it’s a trend that could continue well into the future, since truly affordable EVs aren’t really on the horizon until battery costs get scaled and R&D costs go down. Europe, your car market is about to be a lot more American—and I mean that in more ways than one. My suggestion would be to cope with it the way we do: by investing heavily in Punisher decals for the F-Series trucks you’ll all soon be driving. Support our mission of championing car culture by becoming an Official Autopian Member.
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Ugh! “Invest”? What’s wrong with “buy”? Is “buy” a dirty word now?
And if Ford want more profit why not just do what they’re doing here: Charge more for the same cars they already sell and blame supply chain issues.
Besides IIRC those vehicles are more profitable in the US because they are regulated differently. What’s to stop Europe from imposing the same or stricter regulations on these vehicles? Perhaps even guzzler and congestion taxes on the bigger, thirstier vehicles Ford is pushing?
The Focus is I think the best-selling vehicle in the UK. I suspect though it’s a similar situation as it was with the Fusion here in the States…Ford sold a ton of them but at low profit margins.
…completely forgetting/ignoring that the reason actual light trucks get a pass is because they wouldn’t be used as much as passenger vehicles.
Considering the price to play for those little fellers (Parts and Labor costs have a finite lower limit) it really is not a surprise to me. What is a surprise though is, if the 20K Hybrid Maverick that gets 42MPG and is enough BEV to make many feel warm and fuzzy about helping environmentally? Then why are we not seeing all manner of cars and trucks for 20K using basically the entire chassis and parts but with different sheet metal. you could easily lop off the rear and add a hatch/trunk to a maverick.
(My Focus is a manual thankfully)
The “you guys don’t get this” justification was one of those car company dodges that’s just so infuriating. I don’t think violent shuddering/shaking is considered a normal operating feature in ANY car.
It’s almost like Ford did it on purpose to make the excuse that people don’t buy small cars here, even though it was due to the shitty transmission.
Seriously. I drove past a $26,000 Maverick last weekend while out on a road trip. It had a $10,000 “market adjustment” on the sticker, plus I’m sure it carried other dealer bullshit add-ons.
Yark Ford, in Toledo, Ohio. From now on, we should call out all the assholes who want to screw us over like this.
Still, if anything, I could see the crossovers making more sense in Europe (given the need for small footprints, it makes sense to build up), while if anything, any shift to EVs in North America would theoretically do better to revert to passenger cars (less need to prioritize footprint, but lower frontal area would help higher highway ranges).
If they can do that with the Escape, then maybe they can do the same thing with a smaller vehicle that will be a de-facto “Focus”, but please-don’t-call-it-a-car.
The current Focus car isn’t that much different than the Puma crossover, and the Chinese-market Evos hatchback is very likely the aborted Fusion Active crossover. Neither are the faux-off-road vehicle-looking design that most of us dislike.
Will the Punisher decals come in Union Jack patterns?
You want your washing machine to wash your clothes and be reasonably reliable; you don’t really care that it looks unique, how it feels to operate it, or what sounds it makes. They all have the same capacity (here in the States anyway), look similar, and cost about the same to run. Very few people have much interest in working on their washing machines when they break. And almost none have any emotional connection to them.
The days of car companies making one (or multiple) of every type of vehicle are coming to an end as more and more entrants join the market. And that’s good.
Here in the U.S. at least, the Korean companies have now taken over the niche that Japanese companies held in the ’80s, producing good bang for the buck vehicles at the lower end. Japanese companies meanwhile have moved upscale – higher quality, features, etc. but with a pricetag to match. Meanwhile, the domestics are now trading on both heritage and the future, and the Europeans offer what they usually do – refinement and (the perception of?) high quality. For consumers, it all means more choice.
I’m sad personally that my beloved Ford is dropping the cars, but it’s in part a sign that the market is working more or less as it should. Ford isn’t flat-out dictating that people must like SUVs and crossovers like Henry might have with car color, it’s the other way ’round.
But I can imagine the scene changing. And the Chinese are most likely to cash in with Fiesta and Focus copies, inexpensive, less sporty and likely not as well built. The per-unit profits may not be as great, but they’ll make it up in volume.
Forcing the public to pay more for unnecessary bulk doesn’t strike me as a long-term success in any case. Some buyers will pay more for a Golf GTI when they would have happily queued up for a Fiesta or Focus ST, too.
I for one would like to have a Fiesta ST that doesn’t either have 100K+ hard miles or a salvage title in its history. Guess I’ll have to look for a good used GTI….
Chinese cars are coming to Europe, and they’ll start off as the cheapest cars available, including small sedans and hatchbacks. This is almost like Ford turning tail and running from the low end of the market before they get their asses handed to them.
Chinese cars will move upmarket, too, just as the Japanese cars started low and moved upmarket. Pulling the defense on the low end will definitely result in additional pain later. They should keep at least one SKU in each segment, but apparently they don’t have the fortitude to do that.
I don’t get it, but I also don’t work in the automotive industry.
The U.S. pickup strategy esp. seems unlikely to work, if only for the fact that it works here in large part to our market (for the big stuff) being protected by 1960s era tariffs.
I’m sure Ford have run the numbers, but it seems odd that they don’t want to make small/medium sized cars when all the other brands are selling multiple different options.
