Over in the US, Ford has famously stopped producing any regular passenger cars which means the Focus, Fiesta and any other smaller cars have been dropped. But here in the UK and the rest of Europe, we have favoured estate cars, small hatches and back in the 90s, MPVs were all the rage.
Lately, people carriers or MPVs have dropped in a bit in popularity in favour of more trendy crossovers and larger SUVs but Ford obviously still has faith in the good old MPV as starting in 2021 the Ford S-MAX and Ford Galaxy will both come in hybrid versions which will join the Kuga Plug-In Hybrid and the Kuga Hybrid.
The Ford S-MAX Hybrid and Galaxy Hybrid will join the line-ups that have sold almost 125,000 and 69,000 vehicles respectively since the latest generation models were introduced in 2015. S‑MAX recorded a 9 per cent increase in sales year-over-year between January and November 2019.
Ford
The new models are part of an investment into a new production facility in Valencia, Spain. Ford is investing £36.7 million into the new battery facility which is being ramped up to help support the battery needs of 14 new electrified Ford models which are to join the line up by the end of 2022.
It doesn’t sound like the new hybrid versions of the S-MAX and Galaxy is going to be the only version available, the cars will still be on sale in five and seven seat versions, but with the hybrid version being a priced step up from the current starting prices. Currently, the S-MAX starts at £30,490 and the Galaxy starts at £33,120.
New hybrid S-MAX and Galaxy models are to go on sale in 2021.
Source: Ford Europe
