The influx of Chinese cars and the SUV boom has taken a toll on the B segment, threatening even top sellers like the Fiesta.
22. července 2022 v 6:37 ET
Autor: Juan Felipe Munoz
Adaptace: Christopher Smith
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With more complex regulations now around the corner and the electrification of the industry taking off, automobile manufacturers will be faced with some very difficult decisions in the next few years. They need to decide whether to keep current models or abandon familiar faces to focus on more efficient electric cars.
This is probably Ford Europe’s predicament with regards to the future of the Fiesta, its superstar seller in the region for decades. The small car has been on the market for over 40 years, during which it’s become a staple for the European market, selling more than 16 million units throughout its long life.
A Fiesta With The Fiesta
The Fiesta has evolved over the years into more attractive and competitive generations. As such, it’s been able to survive many crises while outselling strong competitors such as the Volkswagen Polo, Renault Clio, or Fiat Punto. When the European car market lost ground from 2011 through 2013, many of the B-segment cars ended production. This was the case of the Fiat Punto, a long-time leader that never got a fourth generation due to the contraction in sales of the B segment in Europe.
So, is it possible the Fiesta could suffer the same fate as the defunct Punto? On that front, the outlook for the B segment in Europe isn’t good. In fact, in the last eight years, it has lost more than 5 points of market share, and the slide hasn’t stopped. The main reason lies in the arrival and popularity of small SUVs, and Ford is certainly not exempt from this trend.
In 2014, Ford introduced the EcoSport in Europe and, although it did not initially meet its sales targets, it managed to reposition this B-SUV and earn a fair share of the segment. In 2017, the EcoSport registered 63,000 units registered in Europe against 255,000 for the Fiesta. A year later, Ford sold 113,000 units of the SUV and 271,000 units of the hatchback. In 2019, there were 229,000 Fiestas and 123,000 EcoSports, and by then, the brand had introduced další B-SUV, the Puma.
In 2020, the pandemic and the Puma dented the popularity of the Fiesta. Its volume dropped 32 percent to just 156,000 units. Last year, there were 82,000 registered units of the hatchback versus 134,000 for the Puma. The segment share of the former dropped from 6.8 percent in 2020 to just 3.9 percent in 2021, while the crossover percentage increased from 6.4 to 6.6 percent.
A Family Feud?
Today, the Fiesta plays a minor role in the B segment. According to JATO, in the first half of this year, its registrations have continued to decline by 49%. That’s considerably more compared to the total segment decline, which is down 19 percent. In June, the Fiesta, a car that has been a European top-ten seller for many years, was overtaken by nine other competitors and occupied 58th position in the overall standings.
The current Fiesta has been around since the beginning of 2017. It’s five years old and therefore expected to exist in its current format for another two or three years. However, it is unclear whether Ford will keep this iconic car in production as a traditional small sedan or not. We already know the three-door hatchback is dead, and Ford recently announced it was no longer accepting orders for the Fiesta lineup. The automaker could likely prioritize an electrified crossover version and reposition the model to utilize the boom of SUVs.
Whatever the decision made by Blue Oval executives, the truth is that the European B-segment is expected to experience further turmoil in the coming years. The legislation is making cars more expensive to produce at a time when consumers only want SUVs. And it’s happening just as Chinese manufacturers are preparing to bring their most competitive cars to global markets.
The author of the article, Felipe Munoz, is JATO Dynamics Automotive Industry Specialist.
More Motor1 Numbers To Ponder:
The Ford Fiesta city car may be axed in Europe for good from next year – 12 months after the hot hatch ST version was pulled from Australian showrooms – according to reports out of Europe overnight.
08. října 09, 26:2022
Projekt Městský vůz Ford Fiesta is set to be axed from European showrooms next year, according to reports out of the UK.
The predicted demise of one of Europe’s top-selling cars marks a shift in buyer tastes towards SUVs and electric vehicles – and underlines the financial challenges of developing affordable hatchbacks.
It costs as much to design, develop, engineer and manufacture a city hatch as it does bigger cars – but the profits are slimmer because the price range is lower.
The Fiesta range has already been culled in Australia – where it has been sold by Ford solely in hot hatch ST form since 2020 (leaving the regular models behind) – and the range has been trimmed in Europe in recent months as sales of city cars continue to decline.
Reports out of the UK overight – from Auto expres časopis a Slunce newspaper – claim production of the Fiesta will end for all markets in mid 2023, with no electric successor reportedly planned.
The publications – as well as respected British magazine Trenér – “understand” an official announcement confirming the death of the Fiesta is “imminent”.
Fans of Ford’s smallest European model could see the writing on the wall in recent years, with the steady decline in city car sales as buyers switch to SUVs, and European emissions rules encourage a shift to electric vehicles.
Third-party figures report approximately 82,000 Ford Fiestas as sold in Europe last year – down from about 156,000 in 2020, 229,000 in 2019, and 459,000 in 2009.
Auto expres reports there are no plans for an electric successor to the Fiesta – despite its SUV twin under the skin, the Puma, confirmed for a battery-powered variant in 2024.
It also spells the end for the ‘analogue’ petrol-powered Fiesta ST hot hatch, the latest in a line of high-performance Ford city cars which can trace its roots to the European-market Fiesta XR2 of 1981.
Plans have been announced for the Cologne, Germany factory where the Fiesta is built to produce two new electric SUVs starting sometime next year, and become one of Ford’s electric-car production hubs in Europe.
Ford Australia announced in August the Fiesta ST would depart local showrooms this year, just months after the facelifted model launched locally – though the final batch of approximately 50 cars is not due until early next year.
The final Australian Fiesta STs are expected to be built towards the end of 2022 – which would suggest a slow wind-down of Fiesta production, first withdrawing from low-volume markets such as Australia (where only 92 Fiestas have been delivered so far this year) before pulling out of Europe.
When asked if the current Fiesta ST – and the larger Focus ST hot hatch, which was axed in Australia alongside the Fiesta, and is set to disappear from Europe in 2025 – will be the last with petrol power, Ford Performance global boss Trevor Worthington told Australian media in Detroit last month:
“I don’t talk about our future plans, so sorry to disappoint you. I’m not willing to say that they’re the last or they’re the end because that’s effectively revealing our plans. But they are incredibly important vehicles. They have an incredibly important role.”
Production of the Fiesta and Focus has been hit hard by semiconductor shortages over the past 18 months – in addition to supply constraints caused by the war in Ukraine – which has resulted in various delays and some features being removed from cars to keep production moving.
“It’s inevitable where there’s only a certain amount of (semiconductors), the company has to make a decision about where do those (computer chips) go,” Mr Worthington told media last month.
“It’s been incredibly difficult for those European small cars to fight for the (computer chips) that they need. It’s been really challenging for those vehicles.”
