2022 Ford Focus Lineup Pared Down Significantly In Australia

October 15, 2021 7:40 am

The refreshed 2022 Ford Focus lineup was just revealed yesterday, introducing a handful of styling, tech, and feature updates for the long-running model. In Europe, customers can choose between a number of variants, including Connected, Titanium, Active, ST-Line, and ST, but that apparently won’t be the case in Australia, according to Car Expert.

Ford already discontinued the Trend and Titanium hatchbacks and ST-Line wagon in Australia for the 2021 model year, and now it has gone one step further and removed the ST-Line and Active from the 2022 Focus range, leaving only the high-performance ST on sale Down Under. The reason behind this decision, as is usually the case, pertains to sales.

Focus sales in Australia have plummeted in recent years, from 3,682 units in 2019 to 1,878 in 2020 and 1,372 through the first nine months of 2021. In total, small cars accounted for just 12 percent of Ford’s total sales in the country in 2020, which is down from 20 percent in 2014. It also doesn’t help that the Focus’ main competitors – the Volkswagen Golf and Toyota Corolla – have handily outsold it over the last few years.

As is the case with Europe, the Focus ST will be available both in regular guise and with the optional X Pack, which adds Dynamic Pixel LED headlights, 19-inch alloy wheels, and Track mode for optimized EPAS feedback, more aggressive throttle tuning, and revised traction control settings.

Ford has been tinkering with its Australian lineup considerably in recent months, adding a number of new Ford Ranger variants, ditching the multi-link rear suspension in the front-wheel drive 2022 Ford Escape, and announcing plans to bring five new electrified vehicles to the country by 2024. Unfortunately, however, FoMoCo has no plans to produce a right-hand drive Ford Bronco for the Australian market, as Ford Authority recently reported.

We’ll have more on the Focus and the state of the Australian Ford lineup soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for more Ford Focus news and around-the-clock Ford news coverage.

By Brett Foote

Brett's lost track of all the Fords he's owned over the years and how much he's spent modifying them, but his current money pits include an S550 Mustang and 13th gen F-150.