Ford Focus production will end in 2025, the replacement has not yet been confirmed

Made in European factory Ford Focus It is likely to close in 2025, and it is unclear whether the best-selling model range will be replaced at once.

Overnight, Ford announced that its factory in Valencia, Spain, had won an internal bidding war against Sarlui, Germany, for the right to “assemble vehicles based on the architecture of the next generation of electric vehicles.”

As Saarlouis will continue to focus until 2025, then it will probably be closed or sold with the automaker saying it is “evaluating options for future site ideas”.

Ford Chairman of Europe Stuart Rowley said Automotive News And other outlets are considering it as an “alternative opportunity to produce vehicles in Searleus, along with other manufacturers.”

The company says its range of European passenger cars will be fully electric by 2030. By 2024, Ford’s European range will have four EV passenger cars: a Puma EV, the already released Mustang Mach-E, and a medium-sized and sports crossover made in Cologne. Volkswagen is based on MEB architecture.

Ford has not yet announced whether it will produce any EVs or car types in Valencia. Factory Current manufactures Kuga / Escape, Transit Connect, Galaxy and S-Max there.

It is entirely possible that the company could build a C-segment EV in Valencia. Due to the nameplate’s fun-to-drive reputation and name recognition, the company may also decide to apply the Focus name to such a vehicle.

Alternatively, Ford could focus on European crossovers and commercial vehicles – sorry. The Blue Oval has already undergone a transformation in the United States, where the Mustang is the only vehicle that is not a pickup truck, SUV, van or crossover.

Even if the Focus name is abandoned in Europe, it will probably be somewhere else with current generation cars manufactured in China and Taiwan.

To carry on the legacy of models that have been discontinued in other markets, Ford’s Chinese arm has recently taken on a new model. Over the past few years, Ford of China has created new generations of Mondeo, Taurus and Escort for sale there and in selected export markets.

Focus was introduced in Europe in 1998, and effectively replaced the escort, which was characterized by flexible style in the 1990s, cost-cutting only accountants would be proud of, and erratic mobility.

Through its radical New Age styling and fine-tuned management by the late Richard Parry-Jones, Focus was a gathering place with both the buyer and the Fourth Estate.

Although the small passenger car segment has shrunk in recent years due to overcrowding at buyers’ crossovers, it is responsible for a significant share of sales both here and in Europe.

Until recently, the Focus was regularly one of the best-selling Ford cars in Europe, but the model’s star has waned since Puma and Kuga surpassed it in 2021. Falling sales have forced Ford to cut production and lay off workers.

Locally Focus replaced the Mazda 323-based laser in 2002, but sales were far behind the then influential Falcon and more recently the Ranger.

For the current generation the range is back in a few flavors of an entry-level ST-line model, pseudo-crossover active, and hot ST.

More: Everything Ford Focus