As Ford Authority reported last week, Ford Germany boss Christoph Herr recently told dealers that The Blue Oval is planning to add new passenger cars to its European lineup at some point, which would mark a big turnaround for The Blue Oval after it has eliminated most all of those types of vehicles from its lineup in recent years. We later learned that these new European Ford passenger cars will begin arriving in 2027, but it seems as if Ford will be leaning on partnerships to reenter that particular segment.
Ford will “invest in several vehicles, some of them together with partners and also with different forms of propulsion, including hybrids and fully electric vehicles,” Herr said, stopping short of giving any specific information pertaining to what segments those vehicles will compete in, nor what partners The Blue Oval might utilize in this effort. Ford entered into an expansive partnership agreement with Volkswagen several years ago, and has since stated that it remains interested in exploring additional, similar arrangements as well.
As for what sorts of passenger cars we might see surface in Europe wearing Ford badges, rumors have long pointed to a possible Fiesta EV that would be underpinned by a smaller version of the VW MEB platform currently used in the Capri and Explorer EVs, though it’s also possible these new models could utilize Ford’s own under-development low-cost platform. At the moment, the only passenger car Ford offers in Europe is the Focus, but it’s slated to be discontinued after it exits production later this year.
Regardless of what Ford’s new passenger cars might look like, dealers in Europe have long been clamoring for more entry-level vehicles from the automaker. FoMoCo has been working on solving what many consider to be an affordability crisis in the current market, which – at least in Europe – it believes can be solved with small cars.
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