Ford will go ahead with plans to kill off another of its hugely popular petrol models after 2025 to accelerate its switch to electric vehicles, despite a monumental drop in demand for EVs in recent months.
Plummeting appetite for battery-powered cars has triggered some of Ford’s rivals to announce the extended life cycle of some of its popular combustion engine motors in recent weeks.
However, Ford Europe’s boss has said there will be no stay of execution for the Focus hatchback – a mainstay on Britain’s roads since 1998 – which is due to be culled next year.
It comes after the US auto giant ended production of Fiesta in July, which is the most popular passenger car on Britain’s roads today.
Martin Sander, Ford Europe’s general manager, has said there is no plan to give the Focus an extended stay of execution in comments quoted by Autocar this week.
That’s despite Sander telling the Financial Times Future of the Car Summit in London on Tuesday that Ford would be pushing back its plans to sell only EVs in Europe by 2030 because the target was now ‘irrelevant’ due to electric car sales being ‘below expectations’.
Many of its rivals have announced knee-jerk intentions to push back the end of production of some of their most popular combustion engine models because of a lack of appetite for EVs and sustained demand for petrol and diesel motors.
Germany’s Mercedes-Benz confirmed recently that it will continue to produce the A-Class family hatch – a rival to the Focus – for a further two years until 2026 due to the slowdown in consumer demand for EVs.
Volkswagen has also began rolling back outputs of a number of its electric cars due to supply outpacing demand, Renault in January pulled the plug on its IPO for its Ampere EV division and Aston Martin declared it will continue making petrol cars as long as it possibly can.
And it comes in the wake of major EV makers Tesla and BYD both announcing significant declines in model sales in the first quarter of the year.
But Sander said Ford will remain committed to retiring its existing internal combustion engine models as part of its efforts to move to electric cars.
‘In the long run, we are still deeply convinced that EVs will be the future and we will see a significant increase in volume,’ he said.