Ford Fiesta production hits one million at Cologne plant

The Fiesta has been an outstanding worldwide hit for Ford, and the latest announcement comes after Ford recorded one million Fiesta sales across Europe in March 2011. Global sales of the Fiesta currently stand at 1,350,000 ever since the current model’s introduction in October 2008.

The Cologne factory has been producing the Fiesta since its launch in 2008, at a rate of 1,770 cars a day. Aside from the Fiesta, the plant also produces the Fusion, a crossover based on the previous generation Fiesta. The plant employs 4,200 workers in each of the three production shifts and has an annual capacity of 400,000 vehicles.

Ford said that the construction time for a new Fiesta at the Cologne plant currently stands at thirteen hours, an improvement of five-hours from over a decade ago. The company said that the reduction in build time comes as a result of “on-going improvements and investment” with some €100 million, or about US$148 million, being invested in 2010 alone.

Source: Ford