[Update] Footage of the final Focus from the Saarlouis factory has been embedded below.
@blaulichtreport_saarland 🚗💔 Hier rollt der letzte Focus: Ende einer Ära in Saarlouis Heute ist im Saarlouiser Werk der letzte Ford Focus vom Band gerollt – nach 55 Jahren Produktion. Ein Auto fürs Museum, eins für die Belegschaft. Der Rest: Geschichte - und Applaus für die eigene Zeit mit Ford am Standort Saarlouis. Ein emotionaler Tag für tausende Beschäftigte – und ein Moment, den Saarlouis nie vergessen wird. (Video: Privat)
♬ Originalton - Blaulichtreport Saarland
We warned you this day would come, but it’s still incredibly sad to hear the Focus is officially no more. The writing had been on the wall for a while, and now the inevitable has happened. Last Friday, Ford assembled the final example of its compact model at the Saarlouis plant in Germany. It marks the end of an era, as the Focus had been in production for 27 years.
In an email sent to Motor1, Ford of Europe’s Manager of Corporate Communications, Volker Eis, shared the news: “I can confirm that the last Focus has been produced on Friday, Nov 14. It was a white five-door hatchback.” An official image has not been supplied. The Focus’ demise comes a couple of months after the last hot ST rolled off the assembly line on a different fateful Friday, September 26.
Looking at the bigger picture, the Focus is one of several cars discontinued by the Blue Oval in Europe in recent years. We had to say goodbye to the beloved Fiesta in 2023, while the Mondeo was phased out a year earlier. In 2020, the pint-sized Ka was discontinued as well. These decisions have left Ford without a regular car in its lineup, which now consists only of SUVs and commercial vehicles.
But why did Ford axe so many important nameplates? After all, sales weren’t that bad. In an interview a little over a year ago with CAR Magazine, CEO Jim Farley essentially said the company wasn’t making enough money on them. Profit margins were too small to justify further development, even though the cars remained reasonably popular.
'We’d always competed at the heart of the passenger-car market, which didn’t work out too well for Mondeo, Focus and Fiesta. They were loved by a lot of customers, but they could never justify more capital allocation – unlike commercial vehicles.'
Even more controversial was his preceding statement: “We’re getting out of the boring-car business and into the iconic-vehicle business.” But retiring these “boring” cars has dented Ford’s market share in Europe. According to data published by the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA), Ford had a 7.2 percent market share in Europe at the end of 2015. It has since fallen to only 3.3 percent through September 2025.
With the Focus now out of the picture, it’s reasonable to expect Ford’s market share to drop further in 2026, the first year without a mainstream passenger car in its portfolio since, well, forever. We haven’t forgotten about the Mustang, but the pony car is a niche product. Crossovers and SUVs may be all the rage, but groups like Volkswagen, Renault, and Stellantis continue to find success selling a wide array of regular cars.
Sales data published by Dataforce shows the Dacia Sandero, VW Golf, and Renault Clio as the three best-selling models in Europe in the first ten months of the year. The Peugeot 208, Skoda Octavia, and Toyota Yaris also made the top 10, underscoring that people still very much want traditional cars.
Ford of Europe may be preparing a comeback. Earlier this year, German business newspaper Automobilwoche reported that dealers have been told new models are on the way. However, the first model could be a Focus-sized crossover rather than a conventional hatchback or sedan. How it will be positioned relative to the Kuga (Escape in the U.S.) remains unknown, but it seems the company is intent on abandoning regular cars.
There is, however, an exception. Aside from the Mustang we mentioned earlier, Ford still sells a Mondeo/Taurus mid-size sedan in a few markets.
Source: Ford
