Ford Puma joins Fiesta, Focus and Escape on Australia’s axed-models heap

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Ford Australia has axed yet another passenger vehicle – this time the Puma Gen-E electric SUV that was due to reach showrooms in 2025.

The company announced the decision this morning after the Puma Gen-E was unveiled overnight in Europe.

The electric Puma (pictured) was confirmed to arrive sometime in early 2025 to replace the three-cylinder-petrol Puma compact SUV that was discontinued in mid 2024.

Puma joins a long list of relatively affordable, Euro-sourced vehicles to have been dropped locally, with other recent model exits including the Fiesta city car, Focus small car, and Escape midsized SUV.

Ford Australia said it made the U-turn after extensive analysis of the current state of the new-car market.

“Since we announced that the Puma Gen-E would join the Ford Australia line-up, the EV market, in particular for small SUVs, has changed significantly,” said Ford Australia marketing director Ambrose Henderson.

“There are many factors that influence whether a vehicle’s business case stacks up – such as economic trends, material costs, consumer incentives and global supply chain – and after weighing these up, we took the call that we were better to focus our electrified lineup on other models.”

First details for the Puma Gen-E included a 376km WLTP driving range (or more than 500km for city-only driving), a 0-100km/h time of 8.0 seconds, and significantly improved boot space of 574 litres (up from 410L), plus the addition of a 43-litre frunk.

Pricing had yet to be announced for the Puma Gen-E but it leaves the cheapest passenger car, SUV or dual-cab ute available in local Ford showrooms at about $60,000 drive-away.

Ford’s first electric car, the Mustang Mach-E, has struggled for sales since its debut in 2023. The midsized crossover has recorded 612 registrations to the end of October, where the Escape has 2336 registrations in 2023, its last full year on sale. The Mach-E is the slowest-selling Ford in the current line-up.

A plug-in hybrid version of the Transit Custom van has been confirmed for Australia, further expanding Ford’s range of commercial vehicles.

The diesel-powered Ranger ute and related Everest SUV continue to dominate Ford Australia sales, accounting for nearly 90 per cent of sales.

Ford Australia’s announcements come just weeks before the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) comes into law on 1st January 2025. The standard aims to incentivise car makers to increase the number of low- and zero-emissions vehicles available in showrooms.

The Ford Everest was among a group of large SUVs to be controversially recategorised as Light Commercial vehicles, meaning it joins the Ranger and the company’s van line-up to have a higher emissions threshold.