End of the line for Mondeo

The car whose name was determined to engender a sense of world-wide belonging has been dropped.

ALREADY pulled from New Zealand, now set to leave every other market.

So it goes for the Ford Mondeo, set to die in 2022 after 29 years with no replacement planned, the Blue Oval having determined to focus instead of sports utilities.

Ford NZ has confirmed its stock essentially ran out at the end of 2020. The car’s final representation here was in petrol EcoBoost and 2.0-litre turbodiesel hatch and wagon formats, with a petrol hybrid sedan also availed as a special order unit.

All those models will go out of production in Europe in March 2022, when the nameplate is also set to be retired for good.

Mondeo launched in 1993 and ran for five generations, with five million built. The nameplate was derived from Latin mundus, meaning ‘world’.

It was thought Ford was hatching plans to replace the Mondeo with a croosover style vehicle. That car is coming, but with a different nameplate.

 Blaming "changing customer preferences" for the decision, Ford Europe said it was “evolving our passenger vehicle range in Europe to meet changing customer needs as we move to an electric future”.

Ford Europe going electric – NZ to follow?

Blue Oval battery drive ties with Volkswagen and starts with a small SUV.

the website for British weekly AutoExpress is picking this as the look of Ford’s first small electric for Europe, a small SUV based off Volkswagen’s MEB platform.

 EVERY Ford passenger and commercial model presently sold in New Zealand might potentially be affected by a bombshell electric drive announcement.

Ford’s decision to transfer its entire passenger vehicle line-up in Europe to electric power within the next few years and also to electrify its commercial vehicle range, including the next-generation of the Ranger utility – a top-seller here in its present form – was delivered overnight. 

The repercussion here is still being considered by Ford New Zealand, with spokesman Tom Clancy saying “we have no news for New Zealand on that one. It’s too early to see how that relates to us.”

However, the inevitability of some degree of impact seems clear enough.

fancy an electric Ford Ranger? It’s on the cards.

While Ford is suggesting some of its electrics are just for Europe, the whole plan also appears to draws in future versions of core passenger lines – Fiesta, Focus, Puma and Mondeo (recently discontinued here, but set to re-emerge in 2022 as a SUV that Ford NZ says it will look at) – that NZ takes from that region, with no Plan B.  

We also commit to its Transit van, which is already available in plug-in electric form locally and will go to full electric year.

This schedule also draws in the new-generation Ranger coming next year. That line is a co-development with Volkswagen, whose new Amarok will be a doppelganger, with the programme handled by the same team operating from Melbourne that were behind the current T6.

Talk from Ford Europe is for the one-tonne ute to deliver it with a plug-in hybrid or all-electric option by 2024; presumably these being optional to the diesel engines it will assuredly continue with. Ford has cited intent to achieve two-thirds of commercial sales to be electrified in Europe by 2030. 

The Blue Oval also announced overnight that its first full electric car out of Europe will base off the German giant’s bespoke MEB platform that’s also underpinning all VW Group’s battery-compelled passenger models.

Ford’s model will effectively be a cousin to the to VW ID.4, Skoda Enyaq, SEAT El-Born and two Audi Q4s that are all already NZ-confirmed.

That car will be a small sports utility similar to the Puma. The website for a British weekly, Auto Express, claims the model will derive its styling influence from Ford’s only current electric car, the Mustang Mach-E. It has published images of how it sees it looking.

Fords’ first EV out of Europe is likely to be similar in size to the new Puma.

Ford has also implied the Escape medium SUV will be subject to more electrification beyond the plug-in hybrid treatment it will deliver to NZ later this year.

With all that going, the potential for its performance icon, the Mustang, being ignored seems unlikely. That will be news the NZ fanbase that overwhelmingly choses the current car in its V8 petrol format might find challenging.

However, Ford’s drive toward electric seems cemented. Europe needs to be a primary development site, because this is where brands need electrics if they have any hope of meeting tough European Union CO2 targets. And, of course, beyond that numerous European regions and the United Kingdom are intent on banning on internal combustion engine cars, many by 2030.

Ford says the Fiesta-like EV will be out within two years and will built at a redeveloped Cologne manufacturing plant.

The factory will become the Ford Cologne Electrification Centre - a dedicated electric car manufacturing site. Ultimately it will produce two Ford EVs tailored for European tastes.

AutoExpress says the dimensions of the MEB platform means Ford’s car will likely sit between the Fiesta and Focus in size, and “very close” to the Puma SUV.

“Although the platform is modular and can be extended or shortened with different battery options, it’s expected that Ford’s new EV will be similar in size, allowing clear space between it and the … Mustang Mach-E. However, interior space of the ‘Mini Mustang’ is likely to be in excess of that in the Focus and closer to that in the Mondeo,” the magazine surmises.

Ford will also have VW’s battery technology – so, a choice of 58kWh batteries with power outputs of 150kW or 106kW or a 77kWh battery also with 150kW, but with a longer range.

To be competitive with other MEB models and their rivals, the baby Ford EV would have to offer between 400 and 550 kilometres’ range, AutoExpress says. Fast charging will also be offered with an 80 percent charge expected in a little over half an hour.

Stuart Rowley, the president of Ford Europe, says the announcement in respect to the future of the Cologne factory, which has been outputting cars for almost a century, “is one of the most significant Ford has made in over a generation.”

Here and gone – Endura’s short NZ residency

A big Canada-sourced five-seater SUV that only got here in mid-2018 is leaving Ford’s local line.

The endura as it released in May of 2018. By the end of that year it had a new look, new drivetrain, new tech.

TAKING a name suggestive of longevity wasn’t any help to the Ford Endura – two years on from its local launch, the big Canadian-made five seater sports utility has been dropped from New Zealand sale.

The Auckland-domiciled brand’s confirmation of the model’s demise was not unexpected; earlier this week the car’s only other right-hand-drive customer, Ford Australia, also pulled the plug. 

Ford NZ declined to comment on speculation that the car was doomed without our neighbour’s support, spokesman Tom Clancy suggesting that the car had been “reasonably successful” in our market.

He also cited that the model is set for complete withdrawal from production, as it does not synch with Ford’s move toward an electric vehicle future that demands specific platforms. The Endura’s underpinning is not suited to that purpose, he said.

He voiced same optimism expressed in Australia about Ford still having decent SUV strength without Endura; citing – as Melbourne’s PR team has –the recent expansion of that family to include the new Puma and Escape. In addition, Ford has a Everest off-roader.

Ford NZ says it never saw Endura coming in to reprise the opportunity left by the Falcon-derived Territory, a much-loved car in New Zealand that ended production on 2016.  

Because? Mainly on grounds the new model was a five-seater whereas Territory had room for seven. As does the Everest – though Ford also made clear that Ranger-based vehicle wasn’t a Territory equivalent, either. 

However, families looking for a large Ford might have viewed Endura (which would have been called Edge here, had not Toyota New Zealand claimed dibs to that name) differently. Despite offering fewer chairs it was similar sized and had similar performance traits to the big Aussie, including capability for some limited off-road operation.

 The car’s entry into the market in May, 2018, was interesting; the initial model offered was a short-term proposition, as it arrived in a $73,990 ST Line all-wheel-drive biturbo diesel format whose design dated back to 2014. It already been superseded in North America (where it represents as the Edge) and the United Kingdom.  

Ford NZ had 300 of the pre-facelift cars to sell then subsequently moved in December of 2018 into the refreshed product which offered specification and technical improvements, notably a drivetrain change.

The initial car’s 154kW/450Nm 2.7-litre V6 turbodiesel and six-speed direct shift gearbox was usurped by an eight-speed auto biturbo 2.0-litre diesel with 140kW and 400Nm, and one variant became three: Trend, ST-Line and Titanium, spanning from $53,490 to $69,990.

Ford NZ says it has a handful of cars left in stock.