Ford has revealed that it having to increase production of the new Kuga by 10 per cent at its Valencia Plant to meet strong demand.
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We reported in February that Ford were chuffed with sales of the new Kuga – especially as almost all buyers were opting for ‘premium’ versions – with orders for almost 2,000 in the UK just weeks after the Kuga went in to production in Spain, and sales across Europe for the Kuga up 27 per cent year on year.
So Ford is now doing the only thing they can to deal with the burgeoning sales of the Kuga and are upping production in Valencia by 10 per cent, and now expect to build 100,000 new Kugas this year for Europe alone.
Roelant de Waard, Ford’s Sales and Marketing man, said:
The new Kuga is a smarter SUV that offers a comprehensive array of technologies including the segment-first hands-free tailgate, and debuts Ford’s global Intelligent All-Wheel Drive system in Europe’
This significant production increase is a very promising start to an SUV rollout that is spearheaded by the new Kuga and leverages Ford’s historic leadership in SUVs in North America and other regions to bring to Europe the all-new EcoSport, and later the Ford Edge.
All of which should put a bit of a smile on the face of Ford’s bean counters, with new Kuga sales now looking like they’ll actually overtake Ford’s Mondeo sales across Europe, and with the launch of the EcoSport and Edge SUVs to come Ford could end up selling more SUVs than anything else in Europe in the next few years.
The new family car is the SUV – from compact to full-size – and Ford look like they could revive their fortunes in Europe by concentrating their efforts in this market in the coming years.
The success of the new Ford Kuga is certainly a good start.
SimonSez says
The new Kuga looks a reasonable offering and agree the SUV is probably likely to be Ford’s salvation in Europe, just like Nissan did with the Quashqai/Juke.
BTW, there have been no Ford reviews on Cars UK for a very long time. Don’t you get Ford’s to review any more or do you just not like Ford’s cars?
Cars UK says
Ah, a thorny issue!
Ford don’t think 200k regular readers and 2 million unique visitors a year makes it worth their while sending us cars for review any more. They do offer driving days we could attend, but without the ability to follow up an initial drive with a full review over at least a week – where you really get to know the car – there is no point in trotting along just to blat a few cars around for half an hour each.
All a bit sad, really. But it’s not just Ford.
SimonSez says
Mercedes seem to have stopped sending you cars too. Same reason? Do you have to fight to get the cars for review or are they offered?