Motoring News

The stylish next-generation Ford Focus Estate makes its global debut at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show alongside the sporty Focus 5-door, appearing for the first time in Europe.

The next-generation Focus Estate is the fifth vehicle to be revealed from Ford Motor Company’s new global C-segment platform that will underpin up to ten vehicles around the world and account for two million units of annual production by 2012.

“Our next generation of C-cars shows how Ford is using its global resources to develop at least ten new models or derivatives from the same platform globally,” said Derrick Kuzak, Ford’s group vice president of Product development. “The Focus Estate is the fifth model to be revealed, and is significant for the European market as more than a third of our C-car customers here prefer a estate bodystyle.”

At Geneva, Ford is also filling in details of four future models to come from the platform, but is keeping the tenth model secret for now.
“We have already said that from this global platform we will deliver both a zero-emission Focus Electric and a C-segment Mercury model for North America,” Kuzak added, “In addition, we are confirming that the current European Ford Kuga and North American Ford Escape small SUVs will be replaced by a single, global model plus we want to reassure performance car enthusiasts that we won’t forget them. So we are making the commitment to deliver a future performance model of the new Focus for them, also on a global basis.”

Further details of these new models will be revealed soon, with all of them coming into the Ford global C-car line-up by the end of 2012.

Focus Estate targets major customer base.

The attractive next-generation Ford Focus Estate is a crucial model for the European market in particular, as around one third of all Focus customers choose this bodystyle. In some markets, such as Italy and Germany, the Estate derivative represents more than half of all Ford Focus cars sold.
Overall, the C-car segment in Europe remains relatively stable and accounts for around a third of total car sales with roughly five million C-cars sold annually. Although many premium manufacturers have also moved into the segment in recent years, it is among the volume makers that the competition is most fierce.
The market has seen significant fragmentation in the last decade thanks to the development of new bodystyle derivatives beyond the traditional 4-door sedan, 5-door hatchback and Estate models.
 

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