2024 Ford Focus was a family car that symbolized the company’s revival in the 1990s and became the byword for the fun-to-drive family cars of the time.
On the other hand, it seems that Ford has announced that it will end production of the car in Saarlouis, Germany, the factory where the Focus is currently produced.
The European factory that makes the Ford Focus is likely to close by 2025, and it’s unclear whether the once-selling model lineup will be replaced.
As such Saarlouis will continue to make Focus until 2025, after which it will likely close or be sold with the automaker stating it is “evaluating options for future site concepts”.
Stuart Rowley, chairman of Ford Europe, told Automotive News and other outlets were considering “alternative opportunities for vehicle production in Saarlouis, including other manufacturers”.
The company says its European passenger car line will be fully electric by 2030.
By 2024, Ford’s European lineup will have four EV passenger cars: the Puma EV, the already released Mustang Mach-E, and a midsize and sports crossover made in Cologne based on the Volkswagen MEB architecture.
2024 Ford Focus Review
Production of the current Ford Focus small car is due to end in 2025 and there is no sign of a successor, as the automaker moves towards an electric future.
The final fourth-generation Focus car will launch from the factory doors in Saarlouis, Germany in 2025, Ford Europe boss Stuart Rowley told European media overnight, with no “additional models” planned for the factory assembly line afterward.
Ford has yet to confirm whether the Focus will continue as an electric car though with the small hatchback sales declining in Europe and overseas, and the demise of the smaller Fiesta in the years to come, that’s uncertain.
Ford sold about 101,000 Focus hatchbacks and wagons in Europe last year, less than half of the 224,000 it sold in 2019, and down from 319,000 in 2009. Sales peaked at around 543,000 in 2001, immediately after its launch in 1998.
Ford Australia has slowly slashed back its local Focus lineup in recent years, phasing out its fourth-generation lineup from six to three models by 2020, and discontinuing the ST-Line and Active models late last year.
The only Ford Focus variant left in Australian showrooms is the hot hatch ST, which will undergo a facelift in a few months (image top of story) but is unlikely to receive a major upgrade before the plug is pulled overseas in 2025.
In Australia, the Focus share of the small non-luxury car segment has declined from 6.5 percent in 2014, to 2.4 percent in 2019, and 0.7 percent in 2021 in a segment that, overall, has declined significantly. during the same period.
The Ford Focus Report 2024
Ford has yet to announce which EVs or vehicle types will be produced at the Valencia plant, which currently manufactures the Kuga/Escape, Transit Connect, Galaxy, and S-Max.
It’s entirely possible the company could manufacture a C-segment EV in Valencia. The company may even decide to apply the Focus name to the car, given its fun-to-drive reputation and nameplate recognition.
Alternatively, Ford Europe may choose to focus sorry on crossovers and commercial vehicles. The Blue Oval has made such a transition in the US, where the Mustang is the only vehicle available that isn’t a pickup truck, SUV, van, or crossover.
Even if the Focus name is abandoned in Europe, it will likely live on elsewhere with the current generation of cars also manufactured in China and Taiwan.
Ford’s China arm has recently taken shape in developing new models to carry on the legacy of discontinued models in other markets. In recent years, Ford China has developed a new generation of Mondeo, Taurus, and Escort for sale there and in select export markets.
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The focus was launched in Europe in 1998, and effectively replaced the Escort, which in the 1990s featured a bland style, that accountants only boasted of with its cost-cutting, and somnambulant dynamics.
With its radical New Edge styling and finely tuned handling by the late Richard Parry-Jones, the Focus managed to entice buyers and fourth owners alike.
Although the small passenger car segment has shrunk in recent years as buyers flock to crossovers, it still accounts for a significant portion of sales both here and in Europe.
Until recent years, the Focus was regularly one of Ford’s best-selling vehicles in Europe, but the model’s star has faded by overtaking the Puma and Kuga in 2021. The drop in sales has forced Ford to reduce Focus production and shed factory workers.
Locally the Focus replaced the Mazda 323-based Laser in 2002, but sales lagged far behind the then-dominant Falcon and more recently the Ranger.
Ford Australia has progressively trimmed its local Focus lineup since the launch of the current fourth-generation model.
It recently lost the ST-Line and Active hatchback models, leaving only the hot hatch ST and ST-X which are currently not for sale as chip shortages delayed the launch of the facelifted model.
New Ford Focus EV 2024
Ford’s little car icon could become electric for the next generation, in line with the Blue Oval’s push towards a fully electric line-up in Europe.
The small car nameplate Ford Focus will switch to electric power in the coming years according to overseas reports as Ford’s European division will ditch gasoline and diesel power by the end of the decade.
British publication Autocar reports plans for an electric version of Ford’s small car are going well.
Little else is known about the new model which could bear the E-Focus or Focus Electric branding, following Ford’s past and current naming conventions although Autocar notes that the electric hatch is likely to be launched in the future.
With the end of the current Focus expected in 2024 or 2025, and Ford Europe’s commitment to shifting its entire lineup of cars and SUVs to plug-in hybrid or all-electric power by mid-2026, it’s likely the electric Focus will arrive for the fifth generation of the nameplate with this means the end of pure gasoline or diesel power.
Alternatively, Ford may choose to apply the Focus nameplate to an upcoming “volume all-electric passenger vehicle” confirmed for production in Cologne, Germany in 2023 widely rumored to be based on Volkswagen’s MEB modular electric platform which will see The electric Focus is sold in showrooms with its Saarlouis combustion-engined sibling, made in Germany.
Meanwhile, Ford Australia has committed to introducing “at least five” electrified models locally by the end of 2024, with the mix “mostly” consisting of all-electric vehicles suggesting at least three EVs for local showrooms, including the E-Transit van crash. due in mid-2022.
Whether the electric Focus will make the list remains to be seen, given that local arm Blue Oval recently trimmed the ‘standard’ ST-Line and Active version of the current Focus for 2022 following slowing sales and a shrinking small car segment leaving the ST and ST X hot hatches as the only Focus variant still offered in Australia.
Ford fans will note the mid-2020s model won’t be the first zero-emissions Focus ever made, as the simply-named Focus Electric was offered in the US from 2011 to 2018 (based on the third-generation model), pairing a 107kW electric motor with a 33.5 battery. kWh (from 2017 onwards) for a claimed mileage of just 185km.
2024 Ford Focus Release Date
Drive announced a release schedule for the Ford Focus, which looks set to launch globally in 2025 amid slowing small car sales unless its name is saved at the last minute for a new electric car.
2024 Ford Focus Price
Estimated prices for the 2024 Ford Focus range from $31,990 for the base Hatchback Focus Active trim level to $52,990 for the top range Hatchback Focus ST X.
