Australia

The party's over! Ford Fiesta to be axed globally, so was Australia the canary in the coal mine?

auto, autos, car, cars, ford, the party's over! ford fiesta to be axed globally, so was australia the canary in the coal mine?
After 46 years of production, Ford could soon retire the Fiesta nameplate worldwide.

After seven generations on sale globally the writing is on the wall for the Ford Fiesta, one of the world’s most enduring and popular small cars, which will wind down production in 2023.

This will mark a continuous 47-year innings for the popular light car, but the news is unsurprising given the world’s seemingly insatiable appetite for city-sized SUVs, combined with the potential cost of engineering an EV-ready platform for a new-generation model.

In fact, the Australian-market Fiesta served as a herald for what was to come, as the current seventh-generation model was never brought Down Under barring the top-spec ST hot hatch flagship.

And then in August this year, Ford Australia announced the Fiesta ST (as well as the Focus ST and ST X) would be retired from local sale by the end of 2022.

The first production Fiesta appeared in European markets in 1976 as a rapid response to the then current oil crisis causing most of the world’s car manufacturers to shift towards smaller, more economical models.

However, the idea was conceived in 1972 as ‘Project Bobcat’ with development split between Europe and the US.

It took another thirty years for the Fiesta to reach Australia, the fifth-generation version arriving in 2004 as a 1.6-litre petrol hatch only. A four-door sedan and even a three-door van version were available elsewhere.

As the SUV wave continued to build, the Fiesta became more of a niche option, and in recent years sold here in performance-focused ST form only.

Enthusiasts are on notice to snap up an example of the 147kW/320Nm 1.5-litre turbo-petrol FWD hot hatch before local stock dries up before year-end.

auto, autos, car, cars, ford, the party's over! ford fiesta to be axed globally, so was australia the canary in the coal mine?
The seventh-generation was only sold locally in ST hot hatch form.

Ford has made no secret of the fact that it is aggressively pushing towards an EV future, confirming its US $50 billion investment aimed at electrifying its global fleet and delivering more than two million electric vehicle sales annually by 2026.

The UK’s 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars, as well as upcoming restrictions on the sale of combustion vehicles in other jurisdictions has also no doubt played a part in the Fiesta’s demise.

Ford’s compact Puma SUV – which shares the same underpinnings as the Fiesta – will likely cover the ground formerly held by the small hatch, with first hybrid, then plug-in hybrid, and full EV versions.

In fact, the latter was teased in a Ford video bidding farewell to the Fiesta.

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For much of its life, the Fiesta was produced primarily at Ford’s Dagenham plant in London, UK, although more recently the primary manufacturing centre for the model has been in Cologne, Germany.

The Puma is currently built in Craiova, Romania, although greater focus on the model following the Fiesta’s departure could mean extra production in Cologne.

As part of the announcement, Ford has also confirmed the discontinuation of the European S-Max and Galaxy people movers.

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