Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa has confirmed that the Fiesta hatchback has been discontinued locally, while also clarifying the (equally bleak) future of the Figo range…

It’s official: the Fiesta is no longer available in South Africa, with Ford’s local division confirming the end of the line for the once-popular supermini. And it doesn’t end there. The Figo range – which comprises both hatchback and sedan derivatives – will soon be discontinued in South Africa, too.

The seventh-generation Fiesta touched down on local shores in mid-2018, while the facelifted version was revealed on the global stage in September 2021. If you were waiting for the refreshed Fiesta to make its way into Ford’s South African dealerships, prepare to be bitterly disappointed.

“We can confirm that Fiesta has been discontinued from the Ford portfolio in South Africa,” the company confirmed to Cars.co.za, without going into further detail.

While the seventh-gen model wasn’t quite as popular in SA as the strong-selling sixth-gen Fiesta (and did without the ST hot hatch, too), it nevertheless gave the Blue Oval brand the necessary presence in the B-segment. However, with production of the pre-facelift model having ceased, local stock has seemingly run dry, with the figure of 65 units registered in November 2021falling to 28 in December, 15 in January 2022, and just 7 in February.

As a reminder, the last hot-hatch version of the Fiesta offered in South Africa was the 149 kW ST200, which was available in mid-2017 in limited numbers. The fresh-faced, three-cylinder iteration of the current-generation Fiesta ST didn’t ever make it to local shores, much to the disappointment of Ford Performance fans (who were still reeling from the news of the Focus ST’s local passing).

What about the future of the Figo in South Africa?

The Cologne-built Fiesta’s demise in SA leaves the Figo as the sole remaining Ford-badged hatchback, but it won’t be here for long. The Dearborn-based automaker’s local arm has furthermore confirmed that the Figo range (including the sedan variants) is on the chopping block.

“Figo is currently on run-out and will in future be discontinued from the Ford portfolio in South Africa,” the company told us.

Of course, this isn’t quite as surprising as the Fiesta news since production of the second-generation Figo at the company’s Chennai and Sanand factories in India ceased in 2021, with no replacement on the cards. A glance at the latest Naamsa figures suggests Figo stock is likewise almost depleted, with local sales dropping from 124 units in December 2021 to 81 units in January 2022 and 29 units in February.

The departure of the Fiesta and Figo follow the local discontinuation of the Focus range back in 2019, as part of Ford’s global strategy to move investment away from traditional passenger-car models (such as hatches and sedans) and towards the growing SUV, crossover, and bakkies segments. That said, with the locally produced Volkswagen Polo still moving appreciable volumes and the likes of the importedHyundai i20 and Kia Rio(not to mention the smartly priced Suzuki Swift) continuing to do fairlywell for their respective companies, we can’t help but feel the Fiesta’s demise is a little premature…

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