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Carnival has become a household name and once enjoyed a place in China. However, with the electrification and the change of consumer concept, this model has come to an end.

According to Autocar, Ford's Fiesta car line will be officially discontinued in July, and the carnival will be replaced by the Puma. It is reported that the carnival stopped production as soon as possible because the German plant in Cologne, which produces the model, will later switch to mainly producing the electric model Explorer EV ("pure electric explorer"). The head of Ford Europe said that after the Fiesta and Fox stopped production, there will be no electric version in the future and will completely withdraw from the stage of history. The Ford brand will gradually stop production of its fuel models and is expected to reach the annual target of 2 million pure electric EV vehicles worldwide by 2026, and will only offer pure electric EV models in the European market from 2030.

In fact, Ford revealed in October that production of its Fiesta car line would be discontinued. Officials said that production of its Fiesta model would be officially discontinued in overseas markets in June 2023, and that production of its high-performance version of the Carnival ST would also be discontinued in 2023. In addition, Ford's two S-MAX/Galaxy MPV models will be discontinued in the spring of 2023 and will no longer have a successor. Earlier, Ford stopped production of focus and Fusion (domestic Mondeo) in several markets to transform production of SUV, crossover cars and trucks. Relevant data show that: Carnival models were launched in 1976, a total of 9 generations of products, overseas models currently on sale is the 9th generation mid-term modified models. Carnival cars include the regular version, the Active cross-border version and the ST performance version and other models. Earlier, Ford Fiesta was popular in Europe, but as most consumers shifted their interest from hatchbacks to cross-border models such as the PUMA, sales of the carnival line fell sharply.

The subsequent production of the Explorer EV model at the Cologne plant in Germany was launched by Ford in March this year and is based on the Volkswagen MEB platform. The new car is expected to be available in Europe in the first quarter of 2024. At present, the model has been ordered in the European market. It is understood that the car will launch two versions of the standard version and the Premium version in the future, with an entry price of less than 45000 euros (about 333500 yuan). Whether Explorer EV will be introduced into the Chinese market in the future has not yet been officially announced.

Under the background of the rapid development of new energy and the weak growth of Ford's own sales, it has to speed up the pace of electrification. In order to accelerate the pace of Ford's electric transformation, Ford split the traditional fuel vehicle and electric vehicle business, dividing Ford's car manufacturing business into two. Among them, the fuel vehicle business is called "Ford Blue" and the electric vehicle business is called "Ford Model e", which is led by different teams and the financial statements will be separated. Ford Blue specializes in producing traditional fuel engines for vehicles such as Bronco sport utility vehicles, while Ford Model e is in charge of electric vehicles and digital operations. Ford CEO Jim Farley has said he intends to turn Ford Blue into the company's profit and cash engine to fund the expansion of the electric vehicle business.

In addition, in order to promote the electrification process, officials earlier announced that they would cut 3800 jobs over the next three years in order to reduce costs and maintain the competitiveness of the electric car market. Take the Chinese market as an example, the road of Ford's new energy transformation in China is not smooth. In September 2022, Ford Electric Mach Technology was officially put into operation. Ford China has high hopes for this. It is hoped that through this independent company to operate its electric vehicle business in China and accelerate the electrification transformation in China, but Ford electric horse sales are not satisfactory after listing. Relevant data show that Ford electric horse sales for the whole year in 2022 are 6080. At the same time, Ford has not performed well in the Chinese market in recent years, with figures showing that Ford's annual sales in China in 2022 were 496000 vehicles, down 33.5% from the same period last year.

According to the official plan, Ford plans to have a global production capacity of more than 2 million electric vehicles in 2026, all models sold in Europe by 2030 will be purely electric, and all models of the Ford brand in the global market will be purely electric in 2035. Planning is beautiful, but in the face of increasingly competitive electrification, how Ford should break the game quickly may be a big challenge for officials.

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