For so many people, cars are an essential. They provide safe, reliable transport, and allow that freedom of mobility.
Most mainstream car makers understand this. Whatever aspirations they have to become more premium and moved upmarket, they still recognise the need to offer access to their brand. That’s why city cars and superminis have existed, to allow buyers affordable routes into new car ownership, and all the safety and emissions benefits this brings.
In the past few months, many senior, powerful voices in the industry have lamented the introduction of upcoming Euro 7 emissions regulations as a way of forcing small cars off sale for good, and with the rise of (just as costly) electrification, unlikely to return. The best hope is for those A- and B-segments to merge, and a price of around €20,000 (£17,200) mooted.
Ford is a company that seems absent from the argument. It seems to be willingly giving up its market-leading position with small cars like the Ford Fiesta (confirmed to be axed in 2023) and are all-in on electric cars. Which is fine, but we’re yet to see a concession to affordability, and the switch to electric is one that requires tact in explaining to customers why the make-up and price of cars in a showroom is not what you’ve always known it to be. (Ford has disapproved of Euro 7, but in the context of diverting resources away from electrification. A fair point.)
Ford’s everyman positioning in the market is one that should be embraced and protected, not left for dead. The move to electrification is one you can embrace, but also appreciate it is a nuanced debate, and a switch that leaves plenty behind.
The company invented the very idea of the ordinary person’s access to mobility. When it became clear the Model T would be a success, Henry Ford slashed the price further to make it even more accessible.
When the Fiesta goes off sale, the brand's least expensive model will be the Ford Puma, which costs just shy of £25,000. Ford’s profitability issues with smaller, more affordable cars with Europe are well known, yet abandoning them all together - and so far ahead of 2030 - seems an easy way out, and against the very ethos on which the company was founded.
There are plenty of car companies willing to join the debate, however. Kia UK boss Paul Philpott was empathic in saying: “We will keep the Picanto with a 1.0-litre engine going for as long as we can to give people that access point” into new car ownership. “We absolutely intend to stay as a full line-up manufacturer.”
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