We knew this day would come, but that doesn’t make it any easier. Ford is ending decades of hot hatch tradition by pulling the plug on the Focus ST. The final car rolled off the assembly line at the Saarlouis plant in Germany on Friday, September 26. The Blue Oval still builds the regular Focus, but not for long. Production ends altogether in November.
The order books for the Focus ST closed months ago, so the writing had been on the wall for quite some time. Its demise comes only a couple of years after Ford discontinued the smaller Fiesta ST. As with the Focus, the supermini was dropped entirely from the lineup. In 2024, CEO Jim Farley defended axing the hatchbacks, saying the company wasn’t making any real money with them despite being “loved by a lot of customers.”
Scrapping the Fiesta in 2023 and the Mondeo the year before has taken a serious toll on Ford’s presence in Europe. Its market share on the continent is now just 3.3 percent, below Hyundai and Kia, each at 4 percent. According to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), Ford sold 260,342 cars in the first eight months of the year. VW delivered nearly three and a half times more, not even counting its many sub-brands. Skoda alone nearly doubled Ford’s volume, showing just how far the mighty have fallen.
The ST’s demise also highlights how Europe’s hot hatch segment continues to shrink. We recently lost the Honda Civic Type R to stricter emissions regulations. Hyundai’s i20 N and i30 N are long gone, while cars like the Peugeot 308 GTi are distant memories. That’s not to say options don’t exist. VW still sells the Polo GTI and Golf GTI/R, Cupra offers the Leon, and Audi has the S3 and RS3 Sportback.
Honorable mentions also go to the BMW M135i, AMG A35/A45, and the Toyota GR Yaris. We might even get the GR Corolla, considering it’ll be built in the UK starting next year. But with Euro 7 looming and 2035 marking the possible end of new combustion cars, gas-powered hot hatches are a dying breed.
Automakers are trying to steer enthusiasts toward electric alternatives like the Abarth 500e, VW ID.3 GTX, and Peugeot E-208 GTi, but it’s safe to say the glory days of hot hatches are long gone.
As for the Saarlouis plant, it will remain open until the end of 2032. Although car production ends soon, 1,000 jobs will stay. There’s talk of new models, but Ford isn’t saying where they’ll be built. And when we say “cars,” we really mean more SUVs, with a new Focus-sized model apparently joining the Puma and Kuga.
Still, we’re holding out hope for actual cars, especially given Ford of Europe’s long hatchback tradition. In the meantime, pour one out for the ST and for the Focus altogether.
