Ford Motor Co. continues the global rollout of the new Ford Focus with production for Europe starting today.The compact car, as a sedan and five-door hatchback, has already begun early production for North America at Ford's Michigan Assembly Plant.
Western European markets will source their cars from Ford's Saarlouis Assembly Plant in Germany, which will make the sedan, hatch and wagon. "Saarlouis is proud to have been the lead plant for Ford Focus production in Europe since the first model was launched in 1998."
Ford has sold more than 10 million Ford Focuses globally.
The punchy Focus ST variant won't enter production in Germany until early 2012, however.
The final piece in Ford's global puzzle for the Focus will be production at new plants in Chongqing, China, and Rayong, Thailand. That will complete the five-plant, three-continent, 120-market roll-out of the Focus,
making it one of the most truly "global" cars on the market.Though the standard Focus sedan and hatch will no doubt be interesting cars, we're waiting for the hot-hatch ST, so we still have a long year's wait ahead of us.
It's about time for the new global 2012 Ford Focus to hit the streets, and Germany has entered production to fill European demand.
The Saarlouis plant in the southwest German region of Saarland will build the Focus sedan, hatchback (ST hot hatch joins the line in early 2012), and wagon exclusively for the European market. To help reach those numbers, Ford extended permanent offers to 500 temporary contract workers.
"This is an important day for Ford, the Saarland and for Germany," said Ken Macfarlane, Ford of Europe's VP of manufacturing. Saarlouis, also home to the Kuga, joins Ford's Michigan Assembly Plant located in Wayne as the current hubs for the 2012 Ford Focus.
Production of the" 2012 Ford Focus" has started in Germany ahead of the vehicle’s showroom debut early next year.
Ford invested 300 million euros ($403 million) in modernising the Saarlouis Assembly Plant for Focus production, and the project has created 500 new jobs. The plant also manufacturers the Ford Kuga compact SUV.
Early production of the Focus sedan and hatch has also commenced at Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant.
Australian Focus models will initially be sourced from the Saarlouis plant. Built on Ford’s global C-segment platform, the Focus will make up a large proportion of the two-million-plus C-segment vehicles produced annually by Ford by 2012.