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As part of its shift away from sedans and hatchbacks, Ford had planned to sell just one variant of the new, fourth-generation Focus in the US market: The crossover-esque Focus Active shown above. This high-riding Focus is built in China, and that's recently become a problem. Automotive News reports today that Ford has cancelled its plans to import the Focus Active to the US, and it's all due to the 25-percent import tariff imposed as part of President Trump's trade war with China.
This tariffs would have reduced Ford's profits on the Focus Active, which would've been a niche product among Ford's planned portfolio of pickup trucks, SUVs and crossovers for 2019 and beyond.
"The impact to our future sales is expected to be marginal," Ford North America president Kumar Galhotra told Automotive News. "Our viewpoint is that, given the tariffs, our costs would be substantially higher. Our resources could be better deployed at this stage."
Per Automotive News, Ford has decided it won't bring the Focus Active to the US market even if the US government removes the planned tariffs. This officially leaves just one passenger car in Ford's US lineup, the Mustang. Everything else will be a crossover, SUV, or truck by 2020, at which point US-market Fiesta, Focus, Fusion, and Taurus production will have ended.
The Focus has been part of Ford's US lineup since 1999, with hotter versions like the original SVT and recent ST and RS models aimed at the enthusiast market. The Focus line will still be sold in other parts of the world, with factories in China and Germany cranking out the new fourth-gen model.
Read more on Road and Track.
