The final Ford Focus ST has rolled off the factory floor at the Blue Oval brand’s Saarlouis plant in Germany after four generations of high-performance hatches that proved – in some cases – worthy alternatives to the iconic Volkswagen Golf GTI hot hatch.
A total of 4231 Focus STs were sold in Australia between 2012 and the final delivery in 2023, although the first-generation Focus ‘ST170’ – named after its 170bhp (127kW) output – arrived here in 2002 alongside the then-new BA Falcon.
Ford hasn’t officially confirmed the last Focus ST has been made, but a report from The Drive says the final car has left the building in europe. Ford previously said the final version would be manufactured in November 2025.
The Focus ST is the last in a long lineage of Ford hot hatches, with the final Fiesta ST produced in July 2023.
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The Focus and smaller Fiesta were both victims of Ford’s move away from conventional passenger cars in favour of a stronger, er, focus on more lucrative SUVs, pickups and trucks.
Their departure was announced way back in 2018, bringing an end not only to two famous Ford nameplates that had been some of the best-selling cars on the planet, but also their popular performance ST variants, which Ford Australia confirmed in 2022 would be axed, too.
The final Focus ST sold in Australia (model year 22.5) packed a serious 206kW of power and 420Nm of torque from its turbocharged 2.3-litre four-cylinder petrol engine, matched with a six-speed manual.
There was no automatic version, to the delight of driving enthusiasts, until the final 18 months of the Focus ST’s stint here, which included the ‘XR5’ versions (powered by Volvo-sourced five-cylinder turbo-petrol engines) after the initial 2002 ST170.
A smart limited-slip differential and anti-lag turbo system made the final Focus ST brutally effective in getting all of its grunt to the ground through the front wheels – with torque vectoring helping around the twisty stuff.
It made the Focus ST somewhat of a hidden gem later in its life, having previously been overshadowed by super-sharp rivals and shunned by many hardcore enthusiasts in favour of the Honda Civic Type R, Subaru WRX and various iterations of the Megane RS.
Of course, there the Golf GTI was also a rival from the 2005 MkV onwards, which became ubiquitous as a byword for hot hatches while the XR5 at the time was comparatively soft-edged and less engaging.
Being manual-only for most of its life warded off the pretenders and left the ST for those who wanted the interaction and connectedness that a proper hot hatch can bring.
It was fitting then that when it launched the second-generation Ranger Raptor in 2022, Ford Australia bragged about its 0-100kmh acceleration time by saying it was “about the same as a Focus ST” – which translated to impressive mid-5.0-second runs.
The final-generation Focus ST was joined by the legendary Focus RS – the 257kW, all-wheel drive, manual-only hyper hatch that punched far beyond what any small car with a Ford badge had previously, for a relatively humble price.
Ford, of course, has a tradition of producing high-performance small cars that shame much pricier rivals, dating back to the Escort and Cortina, but the market shift towards SUVs and away from their donor models – which were generally dynamic leaders despite their commuter status – ended the fun.
Yet Ford’s current president and CEO Jim Farley, a self-confessed petrol-head, has said the automaker needs to get back to making fun vehicles, declaring the company will produce “no more boring cars” earlier this year.
In August 2025, chair of the automaker Bill Ford said the company needed to do better with passenger vehicles, and reportedly told dealers in Europe – where Fiesta and Focus development was previously based – that development of new passenger models was underway.
However, that doesn’t mean a Focus ST will return, given reports the Focus name could return on an SUV, like the Capri name – and with Mr Farley having his sights set on a high-performance 1000hp (745kW) off-road ‘supercar for gravel’.
While it has the Mustang muscle car, pricing for which rose by $5000 in July, Ford has little to offer driving enthusiasts right now, leaving the hot hatch market largely to Toyota, Hyundai and Honda for the time being.