Opinion: Are the days really numbered for the Ford Focus?
As Ford reveals plans to prioritise Kuga, Puma and Mach-E marketing, what does this mean for the traditional hatchback?
It was a pretty stark admission from a Ford spokesman on a recent launch: “The Kuga is now our heartland car.” This, from a company that brought us bona fide ‘people’s cars’ like the Focus, Fiesta and Escort.
This too, though, from a company that has been brave enough to kill off the Mondeo. It seems Ford - once so intrinsically linked with hatchbacks - is not afraid to make tough decisions in order to ensure it builds the car customers want nowadays.
Let’s just let all that sink in for a moment. The Focus, the icon that redefined a sector, claimed bedroom poster honours in its hallowed Martini WRC livery and provided the basis for some of the best hot hatchbacks in living memory, no longer sits front and centre at Ford’s product strategy meetings.
It’s clear in the marketing where Ford is aiming. Some 70% of the company’s advertising spend in the UK is going against the Kuga, Puma and Mustang Mach-E.
The Kuga gains not one, not two, but three hybrid variants (if you count the mild hybrid version), plus a whole gamut of diesels and petrols. You can get it in front- or four-wheel-drive, and Ford clearly sees it as the successor to the Mondeo, as one-time saloon buyers aim to put a bit more clearance between their backsides and the ground.
The non-ST Focus? It gets just one electrified option, and even that is only a mild hybrid.
Are we, so to speak, losing Focus, then? Honestly, despite all the above, I can’t see it. Although the Focus dropped out of the top 10 best selling cars in April, that was more than likely just a blip. Overall, Ford still sold 40,000 of them in 2020, a healthy 13,700 up on the Puma. The Mondeo managed just 2400 sales in 2020.
Those April figures were also compounded by the worldwide shortage of chips. A spokesman for Ford said that the shortage of semiconductors mean sales figures are “not a normal situation at the moment”, as Ford prioritises production for the likes of Kuga, Puma and Mach-E because “that’s where the growth is”.
But it’s also clear the Focus will probably never regain the market share it once enjoyed. We may well be witnessing the beginning of the end of an era.
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