Customers will no longer be able to custom order the Ford Fiesta or Focus in Europe. Instead, they will have to select from pre-specified models due to production backlogs.
“Due to the good customer demand, however, also due to the production situation, we currently have delivery times of up to 12 months in some cases for various model series,” a Ford spokesperson told Automobilwoche recently.
As a result, the automaker is closing free order availability on the Focus and Fiesta (among others), in which customers get to spec their own vehicle before it’s made at the factory, a style of shopping that is popular in Europe.
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The company is, instead, “offering available production volume to our dealers in the form of pre-specified units based on customer demand.” The measure was confirmed by Markus Thal, the head of the union that oversees Ford’s factory in Saarlouis, Germany, where the Focus is made.
Thal added that orders currently being received by the plant would run into 2023 and that it would not currently be possible to deliver a Focus before next spring if an order was made today.
Employee representatives at the plant said that Ford only expects to be able to build 117,000 Focuses at the plant this year, as opposed to the 195,000 it had originally planned. Although it should get better next year, the automaker still only expects to make 143,000 there in 2023.
With supply lines still clogged and the European energy market in flux, though, it’s unclear if Ford will be able to make these estimates.
The announcement is just the latest signal that vehicle production remains extremely tricky in 2022. Earlier this week, Nissan Japan announced that it would suspend orders for both the Japanese market Ariya and Fairlady Z due to production issues.
