Last example of the UK's most popular supermini to be produced on 7 July.
02 Jul 2023 | 8074 Views | By Charlie Martin, Autocar UK
The final Ford Fiesta will roll off the production line on 7 July following the company's decision late last year to axe the popular supermini, Autocar can reveal.
It brings 47 years and eight generations of the Fiesta to an end.
The final two Fiestas will remain with Ford. One will ...
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The final Ford Fiesta will roll off the production line on 7 July following the company's decision late last year to axe the popular supermini, Autocar can reveal.
It brings 47 years and eight generations of the Fiesta to an end.
The final two Fiestas will remain with Ford. One will join the firm’s international heritage fleet, based at the Cologne, Germany, plant where the model was produced, and the other is bound for the UK heritage fleet.
The Fiesta was axed because the brand “needed the space in the factory” to produce the upcoming Ford Explorer electric SUV, Martin Sander, general manager of Ford Model E Europe, told Autocar in December 2022.
The Cologne EV centre – Ford’s first carbon-neutral factory – officially opened on 12 June.
The Fiesta regularly featured in the UK’s annual list of top 10 best-selling cars since its 1976 launch and held the top spot between 2009 and 2020 – the longest ever run of consecutive years on top.
In 2021, however, the Fiesta fell out of the top 10 altogether as the Covid-19 pandemic hit supply chains. Many manufacturers were forced to divert their stock of parts away from less profitable small cars and towards more bountiful crossovers and SUVs. When Ford paused Fiesta orders in June 2022, it cited the shortage of semiconductors as having created a six-month backlog for the supermini.
That is not to say that the Fiesta declined in popularity, because it has regularly featured in the UK’s top 10 best-sellers throughout the first five months of 2023, and remains the top choice for the used car market.
The company expects to sell 600,000 EVs annually by 2026 under its Ford Model E division, which operates separately from its ICE car and commercial vehicle divisions (Ford Blue and Ford Pro, respectively).
Ford previously stated that it will sell only EVs in Europe from 2030.
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