Ford Production In Europe Heavily Impacted By Current Events

March 21, 2022 6:53 am

Ford production has been heavily impacted across the globe over the past couple of years, largely due to supply chain constraints stemming from the early days of the pandemic. As a result, Ford has been forced to idle its plants periodically over that time period, as well as delay or even remove certain features from some of its vehicles. On top of these existing problems, new ones have further affected Ford production in a negative way, including a devastating earthquake in Japan and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which recently prompted FoMoCo to suspend its Russian joint venture. Now, a combination of these events is also impacting Ford’s European production, too.

According to Automotive News Europe, Ford Focus production at the Ford Saarlouis Assembly Plant in Germany will be down through Friday of this week due to a number of parts shortages stemming from Ukraine and other areas. As Ford Authority reported last week, the refreshed 2022 Focus has launched without its newly optional 13.2-inch infotainment screen because of the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, and the automaker is also having problems obtaining enough steering wheel parts produced in that country.

Meanwhile, Ford Fiesta production will pause at the Ford Cologne Assembly Plant for the duration of this week as well due to the chip shortage, while the automaker has stopped taking orders for the Galaxy and S-Max, which are produced at the Ford Valencia Assembly Plant in Spain. Finally, Ford Tourneo Connect production has also been paused at Volkswagen’s Poznan, Poland-based plant since March 10^th as the automaker struggles to obtain wiring harnesses from Ukraine.

Meanwhile, this crisis doesn’t appear likely to improve anytime soon, but estimates on when the chip shortage might ease range greatly. A recent report from the U.S. Department of Commerce suggests that microchip demand will continue to exceed supply for at least six more months, while Ford CEO Jim Farley previously stated that he believes the problem will persist through 2023.

We’ll have the latest on all Ford plant closures as they happen, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 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.