Production of the updated European-designed Ford Focus has begun at the automaker’s plant in St. Petersburg, Russia.
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The first car of the new models was driven off the line by Leningrad region governor Valery Serdyukov and Ford Europe manufacturing chief Jim Tetreault.
Ford’s Russian unit already holds about 20,000 orders for the new model, already on sale in western Europe, which has a restyled nose and various interior, equipment and mechanical upgrades.
The St Petersburg plant is building all four body styles – three- and five-door hatchbacks, four-door sedan, and five-door wagon – with a choice of five engines, manual or automatic transmissions and three trim levels: Ambiente, Comfort and Ghia.
“I was hugely impressed by the quick and professional preparations done for the St. Petersburg launch of the new Focus. Everyone working at the plant is doing a terrific job – I am very proud of them and the quality of the vehicles they are producing,” Tetreault said in a statement.
The first updated Focus was also the 250,000th sold in Russia since the (previous generation) line was introduced in 1999. The milestone customer was at the offline ceremony to take delivery.
Ford Europe has now built over 5m units since the completely new Focus line replaced the 30-year-old Escort in 1998. The three generations of Escort had been exported widely and the new Focus also went to the US, and was built there and in Mexico. The model was the first car in the world to be named ‘Car of the Year’ both in Europe and in North America.
The current North America market Focus is a an updated version of the first-generation Europe model and quite different from the second-generation line sold elsewhere.
