Ford and Renault plan two affordable electric cars for 2028

Ford has identified a rapid route to bringing two affordable electric cars to market. The first is likely to be an electric Fiesta-style model: designed by Ford, underpinned by Renault’s Ampr architecture - used by the R5 and R4 - and manufactured at Renault’s factory in northern France.

Ford affordable electric cars due in 2028

The car is expected to reach showrooms in early 2028, a little over two years from now. That accelerated timetable is achievable because both the factory and platform are already operational. French production, potentially using Renault’s locally made batteries, should also support eligibility for whichever grants and tariffs Britain and European countries have in place at that point.

Ford is anxious to stress that the model will retain Ford driving characteristics and use Ford’s digital interface. It should therefore differ more from the R5 than the Nissan Micra does, despite the Micra also being produced at Renault’s plant.

The Renault partnership announced today refers to two models arriving in 2028. Ford will not yet reveal what the second vehicle will be. Officially, it is not confirming that the first model is a supermini either, although our source did not dispute the suggestion that this would be the most obvious and urgently needed place to begin.

A possible Ford crossover on the Ampr platform

A crossover would be the natural choice for the second EV. By then, the Puma Gen-E will be only four years old, yet the petrol Puma on which it is based will be nine years old in 2028. Ford could therefore replace the Puma Gen-E with an Ampr-platform car, while substituting the petrol Puma with a model built in its own factories. The Puma is currently made in Romania.

The announcement extends beyond electric cars, too. “A new generation of multi-energy vehicles will arrive starting in 2028,” it said.

All this may indicate that Ford is at last forming a plan to reverse years of decline in its European passenger-car range. Addressing the affordable EV shortfall is an immediate priority, but it is far from the only requirement. Focus production has ceased, leaving Ford with a disjointed and severely depleted line-up.

Its most affordable models are now the Puma, in hybrid and electric forms, followed by the Kuga, available with petrol, hybrid and PHEV power. Above those sit the Mustang sports car, several differently sized converted Transit people-carriers, and no fewer than three large-ish electric crossovers: the Explorer, Capri and Mustang Mach-E.

The omissions are significant: there is no city car, no supermini with either ICE or EV power, no medium-sized hatchback, no estate, and no larger petrol or diesel crossover.

Filling Ford’s European model-range gaps

Ford also requires an EV positioned between the Puma and Explorer. It may - although this remains unconfirmed - use the new Ford EV platform being created by a Ford engineering team headed by Doug Field, the former leader of Apple’s car project. That programme is at least a couple of years behind the Renault partnership, however, and Ford has made no commitment to invest in the Valencia plant in Spain that builds the Kuga.

It is notable that Ford, having used Volkswagen’s MEB platform for the Explorer and Capri, is not expanding that Volkswagen arrangement to smaller cars, despite VW nearing production of small EVs. The Explorer and Capri are assembled at Ford’s Cologne factory in Germany, where sales have been slower than Ford anticipated. The site recently lost a shift and workers were made redundant. It would require further investment to produce smaller electric Fords there, so having Renault manufacture them may have presented a less risky alternative.

One difficulty for Ford is that, while its light-van and pick-up dealers are performing strongly, many car dealers have moved to newly arriving Chinese brands. Fewer dealerships mean fewer car sales. Ford has a smaller presence than before and has shown little loyalty to Fiesta and Focus buyers. Will they return in large numbers?

Today’s statement offers very few concrete details about the cars and acknowledges that they will not be wholly Ford vehicles. Still, it at least confirms that new Ford cars are coming to Europe. For a time, it appeared that vans with windows might be almost all we would receive.