Ford to ‘Focus’ on SUVs and TRANSITs in the UK – looks to be goodbye Mondeo and more

Revealing a loss in Europe for the last six months of £56 million – after a profit last year of £67m – Ford will now concentrate on SUVs and commercial vehicles.

Back in April, we revealed that Ford is dropping saloons and hatchbacks from its range in the US as buyers continue to flock in to SUVs, and we asked if that meant the end of the Mondeo for the UK and Europe. And it looks like it does.

Revealing a £56 million loss for the last six months for its UK and Europe operations – after a profit of £67 million last year – Ford CFO, Bob Shanks, revealed that the majority of Ford’s vehicle range in the UK and Europe was unprofitable.

The exceptions appear to be the SUVs – EcoSport, Kuga and Edge – and the Mustang, as well as the Transit van. And that looks to be the direction Ford is going to be going from now on.

Shanks singled out the C-Max as a poor performer, but with sales of the Mondeo down by more than 80 per cent in the last 20 years – and no longer being built for the US market – there seems little chance it will survive.

Even Ford’s smaller offerings – KA+, Fiesta and Focus – aren’t performing despite adding more options – including Vignale and Active models – so it’s hard to see what Ford can do to revive them. Although it’s only fair to make it clear the Fiesta and Focus are still big sellers in the UK – Ford’s biggest market in Europe.

Even if smaller Fords do survive a push in to SUVs and LCVs, it’s also tough to see how the Galaxy and S-Max will survive for much longer.

Interestingly, the only new model plans revealed during the results announcement are a new Kuga and EcoSport by 2020. Which probably tells you all you need to know.