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Ford reveals updated Fiesta
Published 26 October 2022
By Will Dron

Official: Ford Fiesta, S-Max and Galaxy to be axed as company shifts to electric cars

Follows Focus as Ford ditches classic hatchbacks

Published 26 October 2022
By Will Dron

Ford is to end production of its former bestselling supermini, the Fiesta, along with its two people carriers, the S-Max and Galaxy, as it focuses on a new all-electric future.

In a statement the company today confirmed that the three cars will cease production by the middle of 2023, making way for a portfolio of new electric vehicles.

It follows the announcement that production of the larger Focus family hatchback will come to an end in 2025, and the Mondeo saloon which Ford announced it was ditching in March last year.

The statement said: “We are accelerating our efforts to go all-in on electrification with our passenger vehicles being fully electric by 2030 – and all vehicles across our Ford portfolio by 2035”

Ford is scheduled to announce its full electric vehicle strategy in the coming weeks, with three new pure-electric models due over the next two years, alongside four new electric commercial vehicles for Europe alone.

The passenger cars will include two crossovers, one of which is expected to have a sports focus, plus a battery-electric version of the Puma crossover, more of which will be revealed later this week. It’s thought that the Puma EV will share underpinnings with the Transit Courier and Tourneo Courier electric vans, to save costs and enable production at the same plant in Romania.

These follow the Mustang Mach-E (another crossover) and the Transit-E, a pure-electric version of the bestselling van.

Uncertain future for Ford Fiesta and Focus hatchbacks after 2021 sales slump?

Driving.co.uk understands that Ford is putting all of its efforts into launching its new electric vehicle line-up, and concentrating on types of vehicles that are proving the most popular, i.e. crossovers and SUVs. SUVs also attract larger profit margins than hatchbacks, while MPVs have lost favour with the car-buying public. That leaves no room for the Focus, Fiesta, S-Max and Galaxy.

The current Fiesta is the seventh generation since its introduction in 1976 and to mark its passing, Ford has produced an emotional farewell film.

So far this year, seven of the top 10 bestselling vehicles in the UK have been crossovers or SUVs, including the Nissan Qashqai, Kia Sportage, Hyundai Tucson, and Tesla Model Y. Ford’s Puma and Kuga models are third and seventh in the list of best-selling models, with Fiesta and Focus both outside the top 10.

In 2021, Fiesta didn’t appear in the top 10 bestsellers for the year, either, though this was partly due the the shortage of semi-conductor computer chips; Ford prioritised the Puma, Kuga and Transit as it allocated what chips it could get hold of.

This represents a huge reversal of fortune for the Ford Focus and Fiesta, which between them topped the UK sales charts over 27 years, in 1990 and 1991, then from 1996 to 2020 inclusive, and in 2014 the Fiesta became the best-selling car in the UK ever with nearly five million units having been sold.

Ford held the best-selling car spot every year from 1972 with successive models, including the Cortina, Escort, Fiesta and Focus, though that changed in 2021 with the Vauxhall Corsa taking the honours. The company will hope that its new crossover-based electric vehicle plan will help it return to the top of the charts.

YearBest-selling new car in UKRegistrations
1971Austin Morris 1100/1300 133,527
1972Ford Cortina187,159
1973Ford Cortina181,607
1974Ford Cortina131,234
1975Ford Cortina106,787
1976Ford Escort133,959
1977Ford Cortina120,601*
1978Ford Cortina139,204*
1979Ford Cortina193,784
1980Ford Cortina190,281
1981Ford Cortina159,804
1982Ford Escort166,942
1983Ford Escort174,190
1984Ford Escort157,340*
1985Ford Escort157,269*
1986Ford Escort156,895*
1987Ford Escort178,001
1988Ford Escort172,706*
1989Ford Escort181,218
1990Ford Fiesta151,475
1991Ford Fiesta117,181
1992Ford Escort121,140
1993Ford Escort122,002
1994Ford Escort144,089
1995Ford Escort137,760
1996Ford Fiesta139,680
1997Ford Fiesta119,478*
1998Ford Fiesta116,120
1999Ford Focus103,242
2000Ford Focus114,529
2001Ford Focus137,087
2002Ford Focus151,236
2003Ford Focus131,701
2004Ford Focus141,021
2005Ford Focus145,010
2006Ford Focus137,694
2007Ford Focus126,928
2008Ford Focus101,593
2009Ford Focus117,296
2010Ford Fiesta103,013
2011Ford Fiesta96,112
2012Ford Fiesta109,265
2013Ford Fiesta121,929
2014Ford Fiesta131,254
2015Ford Fiesta133,434
2016Ford Fiesta120,525
2017Ford Fiesta94,533
2018Ford Fiesta95,892
2019Ford Fiesta77,833
2020Ford Fiesta49,174
2021Vauxhall Corsa40,914
* Data unconfirmed
Data supplied by the SMMT

The Fiesta is currently built at Ford’s Cologne plant in Germany, which is being converted to produce electric vehicles based on Volkswagen’s MEB platform for electric cars, after the two companies agreed a joint venture. The S-Max and Galaxy are produced at Ford’s plant in Valencia, Spain.

Ford’s statement, released this morning, said: “At Ford in Europe, we are accelerating our efforts to go all-in on electrification with our passenger vehicles being fully electric by 2030 – and all vehicles across our Ford portfolio by 2035.

“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.

“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, and the electric passenger vehicle production at the Cologne Electrification Centre will reach 1.2 million vehicles over a six-year timeframe.”

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