Ford Fiesta coming to a permanent end in 2023

Having announced earlier this year that it will be ending production of the Focus by 2025, Ford has confirmed that the same fate awaits the Fiesta, albeit much sooner.

Discontinued from South Africa in March, along with the Figo, a year after receiving a facelift plus the inclusion of a mild-hybrid system in Europe the year before, Dearborn’s European President, Martin Sander, remarked that the Blue Oval will draw the curtain on the Fiesta come June next year.

End of an era

A smash-hit success in Europe, especially in the United Kingdom where it remained the country’s best-selling new vehicle for decades until being replaced by the Opel Corsa, the Fiesta has experienced a gradual decline in sales with Old Continent offset last year amounting to 81 980 units, a drop of 47% compared to 2020.

By comparison, Corsa sales also reflected a decrease, nine percent, but came to 181 382 units, while its other traditional rival, the Volkswagen Polo, registered a decline of ten percent for a total of 153 239 units sold across Europe last year.

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What happens next?

In confirming the Fiesta’s end after what will be 47 years and eight generations, Sander told Britain’s Auto Express that the replacement will come in the form of an all-electric version of the Puma as the marque prepares for a wholly plugged-in future before 2030.

“As we get ready to transition to an electric future, we will discontinue production of S-Max and Galaxy in Valencia, Spain in April 2023 and discontinue Fiesta production in Cologne, Germany by end of June 2023,” he said in additional reference to the brand’s pair of equally long-serving MPVs.

“We will introduce three new exciting electric passenger vehicles and four new electric commercial vehicles in Europe by 2024. We plan to sell more than 600 000 electric vehicles in the region by 2026”.

Despite 2024 being stipulated as the year in which the Puma EV will enter productio, Stander attributed the Fiesta’s early end to the preparation and retooling needed at the Cologne Plant as it will be transformed into an electric vehicle only facility that will produce Ford badged vehicles based on Volkswagen’s MEB platform as per the joint venture agreement signed by both marques in 2019.

Consequently, production will not be moved to another plant as no plans are in-place to offer an all-electric version the Puma, which will be produced concurrently with the internal combustion model at the Craiova Plant in Romania.

As mentioned, the end of the Fiesta in Europe, the third of a once popular Ford nameplate after the Focus and Mondeo, won’t have any bearing on South Africa after its axing in March ended a production run of 26 years seeing as the first three generations never made it onto local soil.

Additional information from carindustryanalysis on Instagram.