Photo: Andrei Tutu
I still have mixed feelings about Ford’s Romanian-built Puma. On the one hand, it’s a cutesy subcompact crossover based on the Fiesta instead of a three-door hatchback coupe. But on the other hand, it sells much better than the Fiesta and Focus hatchbacks as well as the Transit Custom.
The Blue Oval has been struggling in the Old Continent for quite a while now, and crossovers like the Puma are keeping the automaker safe from financial ruin in these SUV-driven times. According to Ford, the Puma sold 83,246 units through June 2021 while the Fiesta and Focus accounted for 63,078 and 48,651 units. The similarly-sized EcoSport performed pretty badly with 14,390 examples under its belt, but the mid-sized Edge and Explorer are the worst offenders with 167 and 2,531 examples, respectively.
According to the H1 2021 results published by FoMoCo, the United Kingdom was the automaker’s largest European market in the first half of the year based on the number of registrations. Germany followed suit, along with Italy, France, and Spain. As for the largest markets ranked by Ford’s market share, those are the UK, Hungary, Ireland, Romania, and Denmark.
Looking at the bigger picture, Ford is finally starting to grasp the Old Continent’s car-buying trends. Even though Europeans don’t have the same appetite as their American neighbors in terms of utilities, the writing is on the wall for once-popular body styles such as the sedan.
Speaking of which, the Dearborn-based automaker will phase out the Mondeo next March “as a result of growing changes in customer preference.” Also known as the Fusion across the blue pond we call the Atlantic, the sedan will be replaced by an Evos-inspired liftback next year for the 2023 model year. The coupe-styled five-door sedan is coming to the U.S. as well, and hearsay suggests that it’s going to be called Fusion Active.
According to the H1 2021 results published by FoMoCo, the United Kingdom was the automaker’s largest European market in the first half of the year based on the number of registrations. Germany followed suit, along with Italy, France, and Spain. As for the largest markets ranked by Ford’s market share, those are the UK, Hungary, Ireland, Romania, and Denmark.
Looking at the bigger picture, Ford is finally starting to grasp the Old Continent’s car-buying trends. Even though Europeans don’t have the same appetite as their American neighbors in terms of utilities, the writing is on the wall for once-popular body styles such as the sedan.
Speaking of which, the Dearborn-based automaker will phase out the Mondeo next March “as a result of growing changes in customer preference.” Also known as the Fusion across the blue pond we call the Atlantic, the sedan will be replaced by an Evos-inspired liftback next year for the 2023 model year. The coupe-styled five-door sedan is coming to the U.S. as well, and hearsay suggests that it’s going to be called Fusion Active.
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