Ford is increasing production at its assembly plants in Saarlouis and Cologne, Germany, to meet growing demand for several top-selling vehicles. From next week, Ford is increasing production of the Focus, C-MAX and Grand C-MAX at the Saarlouis plant by 240 units per day to 1,770 vehicles. The Ford Focus and C-MAX are Ford’s second and third best-selling vehicles in Europe.

Ford of Europe increased sales and gained market share in 2014 on strong demand for its new cars and commercial vehicles.

Ford’s vehicle sales in its 20 traditional European markets increased by 7.1 percent from January through November, in an industry that grew 5.7 percent. Year-to-date, Ford has sold 1,075,000 vehicles, achieving a market share of 8.0 percent, up 0.1 percentage point over the same period last year. November sales were 84,500, just 200 units lower than November last year, leading to a market share of 7.5 percent, down by 0.1 percentage point.

Ford today confirmed it will be launching an all-new Focus RS – the ultimate performance version of the world’s best-selling global nameplate.* The company announced that the all-new RS will be made available to customers in major markets around the world for the first time.

Ford Sollers, a joint venture of Ford Motor Company and JSC Sollers in Russia, has started production at its modernized plant at Naberezhnie Chelny in the Republic of Tatarstan.

Ford’s vehicle sales in its 20 traditional European markets increased by 8.1 percent in October, outpacing the overall industry sales growth for the third consecutive month.

A Ford Fiesta ST was honoured after achieving a 39 per cent improvement in fuel efficiency, compared with official figures, in a real-world test of fuel economy on public roads. The Fiesta ST, equipped with a 1.6-litre EcoBoost petrol engine, achieved 3.6 litres per 100 kilometres at an average speed of 56 km/h. This showed an improvement of 39 per cent compared with the official combined fuel consumption of 5.9 l/100 km, according to the New European Driving Cycle.

Olsbergs MSE driver Andreas Bakkerud was back on top this weekend, scoring a win in his Ford Fiesta ST at the penultimate round of the 2014 FIA World Rallycross Championship in Turkey.

Ford’s sales volume in its 20 traditional markets in Europe totalled 605,400 vehicles in the first six months of the year – 37,700 vehicles, or 6.6 percent, more than in the same period in 2013. This compared to a total industry growth in sales of 6.3 percent for the first half of the year. Ford’s market share in Europe was level at 7.9 percent.

For the first time ever, Ken Block has opened the doors to his Hoonigan Racing Division (HRD) base and let the Ford Racing cameras capture what goes on behind the scenes.