Ford Fiesta Active prototype previews 2022 facelift
Popular supermini is due to be refreshed after four years on sale, and new mule hints at design overhaul
Just a month after our first sighting of a camouflaged Ford Focus prototype, its smaller Fiesta sibling has been spotted with suggestions of a similar design overhaul for 2022.
The popular supermini has been on sale for nearly four years so is due a substantial mid-life update to keep it competitive in light of newer rivals. The newer Vauxhall Corsa - which has an electric option, unlike the Fiesta - is currently outselling the Ford in the UK, and by the time the wraps come off, the Volkswagen Polo, Skoda Fabia and Seat Ibiza will each have been updated too.
As was the case with the Focus mule spotted last month, the Fiesta looks to hide a new-look front end under its bulky camouflage. Unusually, the supermini's front grille looks to have been reduced, rather than expanded, for the facelifted car, and new designs have been ushered in for the headlights and lower bumper.
At this stage, changes to the rear end look to be a lot more subtle; the layout of the disguise suggests we will see new-shape brake light clusters and potentially a restyled bootlid.
This prototype being the jacked-up Active variant, it wears chunky body cladding and roof rails and rides higher than the standard Fiesta, but it can otherwise be expected to preview design changes for the entire Fiesta range.
A more subtle model year update in 2020 removed diesel power from the Fiesta in the UK, while a new 48V mild-hybrid petrol option was added to the line-up. Ford's smallest car is now powered exclusively by a 1.0-litre turbocharged three-cylinder engine - with or without electric assistance - in its standard form, with a choice of power outputs. The Fiesta ST performance variant uses a 197bhp non-hybridised 1.5-litre unit.
There have not been any indications of significant alterations to this powertrain line-up for the facelift. The newer Puma crossover, which shares the bulk of its underpinnings with the Fiesta, uses the same engines, and the lack of any warning stickers or obvious charging ports means this protoype isn't testing a new plug-in hybrid powertrain.
Ford recently announced plans, however, for its European passenger car line-up to be entirely electric by 2030, and as part of that, it will introduce a PHEV version of every model by the middle of 2026.
The timings of the company's strategy place question marks over the Fiesta's future, as the current car's lifecycle is set to end in 2024/2025, but any ICE variant introduced after that date would have only a few years on sale before Ford ditches fossil fuels.
The factory that builds the Fiesta in Cologne, Germany, is to be transformed into an EV production hub and will first produce Ford's "first European-built, volume, all-electric passenger vehicle for European customers" using Volkswagen's MEB EV platform.
The current Fiesta is scheduled to be built alongside the new electric car until the end of its production run.
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*2022 Ford Focus facelift to bring updated styling*
*Ford line-up to go all-electric in Europe by 2030*
*Diesel Ford Fiesta axed in UK as mild-hybrid petrol introduced*