Almost a landmark like the cathedral: the Ford Fiesta is shown in front of the impressive Cologne city backdrop.
(Photo: dpa)
Cologne The Ford Fiesta is history. The production of the small car should be stopped on Friday evening at the Cologne Ford plant, the last three vehicles manufactured should remain in the company’s possession as souvenirs.
Around 20 million Fiestas have been built worldwide since 1976, around half of them in Germany – initially in Saarlouis, later for decades in Cologne. “The Fiesta success story is far from over,” the company wrote in 2016 on the occasion of its 40th anniversary. Now the time has come: the last copies are rolling off the assembly line.
“This is a drastic event for Ford,” says industry expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer. “The old Ford says goodbye to Europe and the new electric Ford is coming.”
It is by no means clear what status the car manufacturer will achieve with the car in Europe. The European electric car market is highly competitive, not only from Tesla, but also from the Chinese.
Ford is currently in the process of investing almost two billion euros in its Cologne plant and thereby converting this to the production of new Stromer models, the first of which should come onto the market at the end of the year.
>> Read here: Ford is turning the Cologne location into a purely electric car factory – but there are four challenges
In 1976 the first Fiesta came onto the market for 8440 DM and with 40 hp, in the following model generations the vehicle became larger and had more sophisticated technology. The current list price is at least 20,350 euros for 75 hp.
Around 20 million Fiestas have been built worldwide since 1976.
(Photo: imago images/photothek)
“With the Fiesta, Ford pushed mass motorization further and reached young people and families with manageable budgets with the small car,” says Dudenhöffer, who is director of the Duisburg Center Automotive Research (CAR).
The early 1990s was the peak in Fiesta sales.
In the triad with the Opel Corsa, the VW Polo and the Ford Fiesta, the automotive industry succeeded in “inventing the small car”, says the industry expert. The Ford Fiesta was particularly popular in southern European countries such as France, Italy and Greece. Fiesta sales peaked in the early 1990s, after which the success gradually faded.
Industry expert Dudenhöffer doubts whether Ford will play such a big role again with future car models as it did with the Fiesta. “The switch to electric cars will be an enormous feat for Ford.” The new competition with Tesla and the Chinese on the Stromer market will be “hard as nails”.
Experts speak of the “invention of the small car”.
(Photo: gms)
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