Initial production of the new Ford Focus C-MAX began on Friday at Ford’s assembly plant in Saarlouis, Germany. The new model is due to go on sale in the autumn of 2003 and will be offered in 33 European countries.
Ford plans to manufacture 96,000 new Focus C-MAX vehicles through this year, with production capacity operating at a rate up to 1,060 per day. The total daily vehicle production capacity of Ford’s Saarlouis plant, which also manufactures the Ford Focus, is 1,735 units. The new Focus C-MAX will share the same assembly line as the Ford Focus.
Ford has invested more than 400 million Euros in the production of the new ve-hicle, including an extensive renewal of the Saarlouis body plant and stamping facil-ity. A total of 490 new robots have been added to the existing 450, which complete welding operations for the Ford Focus. A new stamping line meets the highest re-quirements in terms of quality and flexibility.
“With that very significant 400 million Euros investment programme for the installation of new flexible manufacturing equipment to build the Focus and the new Focus C-MAX, we provided our Saarlouis plant with the capability of switching production between the two models quickly and easily. This enables us to be agile in our response to changes in customer needs and provides Ford with the opportunity to move further in the race to deliver the highest standards of customer satisfaction,” said John Fleming, Vice President Manufacturing, Ford of Europe.
Ford’s Saarlouis plant employs around 7,000 people and manufactures the com-pany’s most successful model in Europe. Approximately 2.4 million Ford Focus models have been sold across European since its launch in 1998. The Ford Focus has been Britain’s best-selling new car since 1999 and achieved third place overall among Europe's Top Ten best-sellers for the first time ever in 2002. It was also in 2002 that the Ford Focus achieved true global status, following its introduction to the Australian market, when it was available on all five continents for the first time. Worldwide production facilities for the Ford Focus are Saarlouis (Germany), Valen-cia (Spain), Wayne, Michigan (USA), Hermosillo (Mexico), Pacheco (Argentina) and, since July 2002, St. Petersburg (Russia).
With its sleek, compact shape, sporty, contemporary style and confident dy-namic capabilities, the all-new Ford Focus C-MAX is poised to change customer expectations of what a mid-size modern family vehicle (MFV) can be. Focus C-MAX is a new addition to the Focus range, which brings greater space, flexibility and comfort while refusing to compromise the Focus hallmark driving quality in the process.
Truly versatile, Focus C-MAX offers unique rear-seat flexibility and a premium driver and passenger environment, along with impressive stowage, space and on-board entertainment choices. Focus C-MAX designers opted not to configure the new car for seven seats to avoid compromised driving quality and interior comfort. Instead, Focus C-MAX’s flexibility has been geared to offer ample space for three rear-seat passengers or significantly improved legroom and shoulder room when there are only two.
And true to its name, the new Focus C-MAX brings Ford’s acknowledged capa-bility in engineering driving dynamics to a segment that thus far has been starved of an entry that is truly fun to drive.
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