Ford Focus: Australia's First New Generation 'Home-Grown' Small Car

Motoring Channel Staff - 23/July/2007

Broadmeadows, Australia — Only a handful of days after Ford Australia announced that it would close it's Geelong engine plant 81 years after it opened, the company has now managed to secure a new manufacturing contract, the Ford Focus.

As locally-built 6-cylinder large cars become more costly due to the rising cost of petrol, which has seen their market share dwindle, small 4-cylinder cars are benefitting in a massive way. Ford's move to build small cars in Australia will go a long way to ensuring its future viability.

About a decade ago small cars made up around 15% of the total Australian passenger car market, but today that figure is almost 22%.

Australia's only locally-built small car, the Ford Focus, will commence production at Ford's Campbellfield assembly plant near Melbourne in 2011. The car maker says some 300 jobs will be created when the Focus becomes an Australian-built vehicle.

There was great speculation that Ford was looking at exporting the next generation Falcon to overseas markets, such as the United States, but this will be less of a concern now that Ford will build some 40,000 Focus small cars from 2011.

Ford Australia has had to reduce its manufacturing output of Falcon models as the demand for large cars continues to slide, but it says the Campbellfield manufacturing assembly plant will return to "full capacity utilisation" when the Focus comes online in 2011. 

Ford also says the company's Stamping Plant in Geelong will stamp a significant number of panels for the new vehicle.

"Manufacturing the Ford Focus in Australia will allow us to deliver key business requirements of improving our capacity utilisation and strengthening Ford Australia's integration into the global Ford Motor Company. It also reflects the contemporary market demands for smaller vehicles and opens up significant additional export opportunities within the region," said Ford Australia President Mr Tom Gorman.

Ford released a statement saying "The Focus will be sold in Australia as well as exported to regional markets, including New Zealand and South Africa. Significant additional export markets will be announced closer to 2011."

This new move to build small cars domestically ensures that Ford will become the first Australian car manufacturer to respond to the increasing popularity of smaller vehicles alongside the Falcon and Territory models. 

As well as talking up the export possibilities of the Australia-made Focus, Tom Gorman also recognised governmental contributions that have aided the company in recent times."With the support of the Federal Government and Victorian State Government, Ford Australia will be the first local car manufacturer to respond to these changing market dynamics in this manner. We look forward to offering Australians their first locally produced small car in more than a decade," said Mr Gorman.

Furthermore, Ford also hints that it may be able to incorporate more Australian-specific features into the European designed and engineered small car. By engineering the car in Australia "...Ford will be able to enhance the vehicle's key product attributes by enabling further consideration of Australian-specific customer demands."

Ford states it's new small car "...will also represent the most fuel efficient and environmentally friendly vehicle produced in Australia, with the current manual diesel model offering fuel economy levels of 5.6 litres/100 km and CO2 emission levels of 148g/km." It has also confirmed that both petrol and diesel Focus models will be built in Australia. We tested the most recent Focus models - both petrol and diesel - recently, and you can read the judgements here.

Related articles:
- Ford To Shut Geelong Engine Plant (2007)
- Ford Kuga Concept (2008)
- Holden Commodore vs Ford Falcon (Road Test)
- Ford Territory Turbo (Road Test)
- Next-Gen Ford Falcon in Detroit (2008)
- Ford Falcon BF MkII (2006)
- Ford Focus Diesel (Quick Drive)