Next generation Mondeo - European version not available until 2015

Despite the next generation Mondeo being on sale in the US for several months now under the Fusion model name, it will be 2015 before we see it on Irish roads. The car was first unveiled at the Detroit Motor Show in January 2012.

The problem arises from a deal between the US car firm and workers at its Genk production facility. Ford is set to close the plant, which produces the current Mondeo, but not until the end of 2014.

According to Steve Odell, President of Europe, Middle East and Africa at Ford: "We are moving production of the new Mondeo to Valencia and we are closing the Genk plant at the end of 2014. We agreed with the unions and the (Belgian) government that we would continue to build the existing Mondeo in the Genk plant until near the end of 2014."

Asked if this meant the European version will only have a short lifecycle between launch and facelift given that the US car will have been on sale for two years by then, and most cars are facelifted after four years of production, Odell said: “you’d never launch a car and then facelift it shortly afterwards”. He indicated the next generation Mondeo will be freshened for the European market for launch.