Ford has announced that production of the third-generation Focus has begun in Thailand. The car will be officially launched in the Kingdom in August, and Malaysia is expected to introduce it in both sedan and five-door hatch forms sometime in the third-quarter of the year.
The C346 is the first model off the line at the company’s new, US$450 million state-of-the-art Ford Thailand Manufacturing (FTM) facility in Rayong, which is capable of producing up to six different models simultaneously. Next on the cards will be the EcoSport compact SUV, though no introduction date has yet been announced.
The facility is the fifth globally to produce the Focus, with the Thai-built models also destined for export to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa as well as other ASEAN markets. In addition to FTM, the model is built at Ford plants in Chongqing, China; Saarlouis, Germany; St. Petersburg, Russia, and Wayne, Michigan.
Thailand will build both sedan and hatch versions of the car, with available powertrains for it being two normally-aspirated units, the first being the Duratec 2.0L Ti-VCT GDi (gasoline direct injection) offering 170 PS and 200 Nm of torque for figures. It’ll be paired to a six-speed, dual dry-clutch PowerShift transmission, replete with paddle shifters.
The second powertrain is the Duratec 1.6 litre Ti-VCT engine, already seen on the current Fiesta, offering 125 PS and 159 Nm, matched to the six-speed PowerShift transmission. At the car’s ASEAN launch at the Bangkok Motor Show in March, there was mention of the availability of a five-speed iB5 manual gearbox for the 1.6 litre model. Malaysia, however, is set to get variants wearing only the 2.0 litre mill.
With production underway, the regional media drive of the Focus is set to happen soon, and we’ll be there. Stay tuned for our first impressions of the C346. In the meantime, Sime Darby Auto ConneXion has started a Ford Focus in Malaysia Facebook fan page, so you can find out more about the Malaysian-spec Focus there.
finally!!! been waiting for this quite long.
But still using Duratec. No EcoBoost.
Duratec is a tough engine. I own one for five years.
No EcoBoost initially but hopefully later. They are already selling the EcoBoost Mondeo. It certainly is not due to the lack of expertise.
Why oh why are Aseans not deserving of ECOBOOST ??
WHY !!!???
Its like taking the beef out of the burger !! Might as well tell us to be VEGETARIAN!!
it better than corrolla altis n new civic hahaha
sad.. no ecoboost model..
Come on man ! Just bring on the Focus into Malaysia. I’d like to see the competition between the Elantra , 308/408 in Malaysia. Plus, the old Focus has been here for too long. Finally, the Ford facebook page has been teasing us for far too long. COME ON !
they building up and then climax it to the maximum. Sure sell like hot cakes.
u souind so sure this car can sell. dont talk big. this car so hard to sell. once use you drive till u go to cemetary coz this car usually had no value becaz its a ford car. unllike cambry this car is no good price if uses afterr 5 yrs. so better change to cambry bro. u never fell cheathed by the after sales works.
Sure would end up as bench warmer, as no way SD would let it kill Elantra, to ensured that they would jack up the price, the Focus would end up in Japanese car bracket, there is just to many player in this price range, that why Ford need a new distributor if they intend to expand their current position in Malaysia.
Just don`t understand Y? Y ? m`sia only chose 2.L. model / And left out 1.6 L with manual opnion ? Y not give m`sian another choice ? don`t say that m`sian prefer 2.L and above. Buyers choice ma?
Will not even consider/test drive without EcoBoost. Let them wonder why nobody test their cars even thou it’s good.
Hope to eventually test drive the sedan.
Cheers :)
Better buy cambry. this car will be low re-sale value. cambry after 5 years can still have price. Much ppl will still want to buy cambry used car becaz of the great name cambry is making and the car is very beutiful. jus luuk at the new cambry. the building of the car metal very solid and the enjin is powderful too.
Go cambry go..
hahaha i might be wrong but i smell some sarcasm here… powderful lol havent heard that in a while..
Not Cambry, Camry lah.. besides other spelling mistakes. I bet you are from here, right bro?
The most promising item for Camry is it’s SAFETY. It’s too superb in handling that Toyota don’t need to install VSC anymore.
That’s Toyota technology.
The sedan rear looks like the elantra or optima
This new design is monstrous, overall exterior design much better than Honda Civic, Hyundai Elantra and Kia K5 even different segment. But if you guys not enough money I suggest to get Ford Fiesta that value for money same as Ford Focus
LOL the Fiesta is indeed probably the best car in its class but its B-segment and not C-segment. The above is most likely a Ford salesman ^
The ford focus sedan is really a nice car… i saw one on the way to jb highway… there is 1 ford sedan(singaporean) pass by and it really caught our attention wonder what is car that until we go close and see… it is focus… ^^
FINALLY! Shame, no Ecoboost. I’m hoping they’re bringing the ST as well.
Turbo diesel unit??
Booo….Come on. Stop treating us like little kids. Bring in the ecoboost already.
Still no manual. Sigh~
oh no! that means no more tdci versions! so sad! the new sedan looks good though!
The sedan version sure got a sexy ass! Haha…
To all the complaints about the lack of Ecoboost – my speculation as follows –
In Europe, they are currently on Euro5 emissions regulations. The petrol engines developed for that market – 1 litre Ecoboost, 1.6 litre Ecoboost, and 1.6 litre naturally aspirated – all have to comply to Euro5. These are expensive engines but they can survive because laws mandate that cheaper, more polluting engines cannot be sold there. Also, extremely high fuel taxes make people more willing to pay to fuel saving technologies.
In the rest of the world, the emissions requirements are much lower. The 2.0 litre naturally aspirated engine is cheaper to produce, however it cannot be sold in Europe. This is what gets made for the NA and ASEAN markets. It looks like there isn’t enough demand to set up a dedicated Ecoboost factory in SEA or even the US, and the shipping cost of building an Ecoboost engine in Europe and shipping it to assembly in FTM or Mexico is prohibitive.
Hence the situation we are in now. In short: the majority of people in Asia are going to buy the cheaper, more polluting engine. Only way this changes? Instead of government subsidizing fuel in Malaysia, slap a heavy tax on it (hello RM5 per litre) and mandate Euro5 emissions reguirement (bye bye Proton and Perodua) then you will see all sorts of amazing engines from Europe making its way here.