After a day of frenzied media coverage, Ford has officially confirmed this morning that the long-running Ford Fiesta name will be killed off in summer 2023.
The current model will be the last Fiesta (at least until Ford inevitably revives the nameplate in a few decades’ time), with its demise accelerated by falling sales and a lack of profitability.
Fiesta sales have plunged since 2015, and the current model – launched in 2017 – has failed to live up to the lofty sales standards of its mega-selling predecessor. Last year, Ford sold about 300 fewer Fiestas per day than it did back in 2015.
A complete lack of hybrid or electric versions has also hurt when rivals like the Vauxhall Corsa are ramping up EV sales, while – like every other car manufacturer – Ford has struggled to build vehicles due to microchip shortages that resulted fro the Covid pandemic. The company actually stopped taking orders for Fiesta and Focus in recent months because the waiting lists had blown out so severely, although orders re-opened earlier this month.
SUVs only (plus Mustang)
Ford had already announced that the Focus will be killed off by 2025 and the Mondeo has already ended production, meaning three of the brand’s biggest model names will soon be no more. The people carrier S-Max and Galaxy models are also expected to disappear sometime next year.
That will leave Ford selling nothing but SUV models – except for the Mustang, which will continue for a few more years with a new model expected to arrive in the UK in 2023.
The same has already happened in Ford’s home market of America, where the model line-up consists of nothing but SUVs, pick-up trucks and the Mustang.
A seismic shift to electric models
The next generation of Ford models will not only be SUV-shaped, but powered by electricity. With the UK and much of Europe shifting to zero-emissions cars by 2030 or thereabouts, we’re currently seeing the largest shift in the automotive industry for the last 100 years.
The German factory where the Fiesta is currently built will be repurposed to build electric cars in a joint venture with Volkswagen. However, despite VW planning to launch a small EV called the ID.1, there apparently won’t be a Ford-branded version to continue the Fiesta legacy into the electric era.
Keyword: Ford Fiesta to be killed off next summer