The Chip Shortage Makes Another Victim, as Ford Kills Off the Three-Door Fiesta

In other words, sticking with the best-selling vehicles was the only way to survive a crisis that forced them to temporarily halt the production at most factories, sell models without certain non-critical systems, and in some rare cases, even kill off the least appealing nameplates.

Ford, too, knows how hard it can be to deal with a super-constrained chip inventory. And after trying to reduce the disruptions in its daily operations with temporary production suspensions and the removal of features from its vehicles, Ford is now ready for another approach.

The American carmaker is giving up on the three-door Fiesta, a model that no longer makes much sense going forward. And the reasons the company is pointing to make perfect sense.

First and foremost, the three-door Fiesta is currently manufactured at the company’s plant in Cologne, Germany. This particular facility is part of a very ambitious transition to EVs, so it’ll be the one spearheading the push for new zero-emission vehicles starting next year.

A new electric crossover is projected to enter the production in Germany as soon as 2023, while another crossover should see the daylight at the very same plant only a year later.

Second of all, the chip shortage has forced Ford (and other automakers as well) to closely analyze just how strong every model is selling and try to figure out how their market performance can be improved in the future. In some cases, carmakers abandoned these models completely, pretty much because they didn’t make sense from a business perspective.

This seems to be the case with the three-door Fiesta as well. While Ford plans to continue selling the five-door model, it’s no secret that the yearly sales of this model have been declining for quite some time. Back in 2019, before the whole madness started, Ford produced close to 229,000 Fiestas at its German plant. But once the global health issue hit, the sales declined to no less than 156,000 units, while 2021 made the whole thing twice worse, with only 86,000 Fiestas seeing the daylight.

So at the end of the day, killing off the Fiesta just makes sense given its collapsing sales, though it’ll certainly be interesting to see how long it takes before the 5-door sibling ends up having the same fate as well.

From a chip perspective, ditching the Fiesta gives Ford the chance to slightly improve its semiconductor inventory by getting rid of a model that doesn’t sell well anyway. As a result, the company can prioritize the use of chips for its best-selling models, something that Ford has already confirmed it wants to do until the semiconductor crisis comes to an end.

So going forward, the three-door Fiesta, and as a result, the three-door Fiesta ST as well is getting the ax this summer. The existing orders will obviously be completed, but with only some 8,000 units sold this year, it’s pretty clear the Fiesta will end 2022 with devastating numbers.

In the meantime, Ford is also struggling to find more efficient ways to reduce the disruptions caused by the chip shortage. Not a long time ago, the company announced new temporary production adjustments to its North American plans, with the Mustang itself also affected.

There are signs the chip crunch would ease off in the second half of the year, but Ford has clearly become much more aggressive in its attempt to boost the production of its most profitable models.