Out of Focus

Ford of Europe's Belgium investment cancellation should shake out before second-quarter 2004 with the announcement of production plans for four new products, Ward's learns.

Having reversed a decision to spend E900 million ($1.05 billion) on flexible manufacturing capability to build the next-generation Focus at its 39-year-old Genk assembly plant, Ford is expected to announce before year's end where it will build the next-generation Mondeo, a spokesman says.

And before the end of first-quarter 2004, he adds, the auto maker will disclose where it will build the next-generation Focus, Galaxy and another product Ford refuses to discuss.

Although Focus is a no-go at Genk, the plant remains the “preferred” site for the next Mondeo, Ford admits, noting Transit light truck output will shift to Otosan, Turkey, before March 2004.

Expected in model-year '06, the new Mondeo will be based on a version of Ford's global C1 architecture, referred to internally as EUCD. That platform will spawn the next-generation Land Rover Freelander as well and is likely to form the underpinnings for the next-generation Galaxy, due in 2005. Speculation is the unnamed product could be a cross-utility/vehicle also based on EUCD.

Ford's rollout of the redesigned European Focus — expected in 2005 — is unaffected by the Genk decision. Ford's strategy now calls for just two Focus plants: Saarlouis, Germany, and possibly Valencia, Spain.

The North American Focus is not expected to benefit from the new architecture until possibly 2008. But it is scheduled for a freshening for '05.

Timing, not a retreat from flexible manufacturing, is the reason for cancellation of Focus production at the facility, the spokesman says.

In addition to canceling the investment at Genk, Ford cuts one of three shifts of Mondeo production there, reducing daily output to 840 units from 1,100.