Ford Snatches Away the Focus Active, Leaving Future Low-end Buyers With the EcoSport and What Else?

U.S. Ford Focus production ended in May, but the automaker planned to import the next-generation Focus Active, a slightly lifted, mildly cladded five-door, in order to have something to sell to entry-level buyers. With the subcompact Fiesta ceasing production early next spring and the Fusion following it a couple of years later, that left very little low-end product for new or returning customers.

Well, scratch a crossoverized Focus off your shopping list. The automaker now says the Focus Active will not arrive on these shores in the latter part of 2019, or any date after that.

After learning this, how many of you are now pricing a three-cylinder, FWD EcoSport? Anyone? Hello?

Ford made the admission during a Friday media conference call. At the heart of the matter is something that was already on the radar when the Blue Oval decided to cull all but one of its passenger car models: tariffs, specifically those placed on Chinese-built vehicles.

According to Automotive News, Ford’s North American president, Kumar Galhotra, doesn’t think it’s a big deal.

“The impact to our future sales is expected to be marginal,” Galhotra said. “Our viewpoint is that, given the tariffs, our costs would be substantially higher. Our resources could be better deployed at this stage.”

Galhotra said the company didn’t expect to sell more than 50,000 Focus Actives annually. To put that figure into perspective, Ford unloaded nearly 30,000 Fiestas in the U.S. through the end of July. Focus volume, so far this year, totals over 84,000. Still, the Active would have been an affordable product Ford could have dangled in front of buyers not interested in warmed-over Indian models with questionable styling and quality. Investors and analysts may have been heartened to see it arrive, too

Recall that CEO Jim Hackett said no customer would be left behind after the car cull. What do existing Fiesta or Focus buyers buy next?

Regardless, money talks, and it seems the 25 percent import tariff imposed on Chinese products this year would have erased much of the model’s profitability. Even if tariffs disappear around the globe, Galhotra claims Ford has no plans to pull a U-turn and bring the Active here.

As for Canadians, they weren’t getting the Active anyway, so expect to hear a bit of chuckling from north of the border today.

[Image: Ford Motor Company]