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2012 Ford Focus Production Kicks Off in Russia

Production of the all-new Ford Focus began earlier today at Ford’s Vsevolozhsk Plant near St. Petersburg, Russia. The Blue Oval’s latest and most important model for the global market will be made in a total of three variants in Russia: four-door, five-door and wagon.

The first of the car to roll of the St. Petersburg production line was the five-door hatchback version, while the four-door Focus and the wagon will go into production in September and January, respectively. Russia is almost like the new China right now for most carmakers, as huge growth is being reported month after month and the market doesn’t seem to have reached its full potential yet.

Ford has already received 5,000 Russian orders for the new Focus and many more are expected to follow. Russian customers will be able to choose from four trim levels, 10 exterior colors and four engines, three petrol and one diesel. Much is expected from the Focus in the large European country, as to date more than 500,000 Ford Focus units have been sold there.

More than 400,000 of the C-segment car have been built in the country at the Ford plant in Vsevolozhsk (a milestone reached this year), the first production facility owned by a global automotive company in Russia, and which started manufacturing the Ford Focus in August 2002. Since then, this has been the best-selling foreign made car in Russia.

Swamped with orders coming from a market in continuing expansion, American car maker Ford announced in April it would increase the number of shifts at the St. Petersburg plant from two to three, to bring the production in line with the demand for the Focus model.
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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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