Ford Fusion Replacement To Be Built In Romania – Sources

The code name of Fusion replacer is B-Max, but the car might have a different name, according to ANE.

Late March, Ford Europe president, John Fleming, stated that the company would produce a small vehicle in Romania as of 2010 and that the Craiova-based plant will be the only to produce that type of vehicle.

In Romania, 1,836 Ford Fusion vehicles were sold last year, up 171% compared with the 676 units sold in 2006, while in the first eight months of 2008, were sold 1,106 Fusion vehicles, 4.1% higher compared with the corresponding period a year earlier.

In September last year, Ford agreed to pay EUR57 million for a 72.4% stake in Romania’s Automobile Craiova assembly plant and pledged to invest another EUR675 million to upgrade the plant.

Romanian investment fund SIF Oltenia (SIF5.RO) also holds a 22.06% stake in the plant.

The deal has been delayed by a probe of the European Commission, which ordered the Romanian government to recover an illegal EUR27 million state aid from Automobile Craiova.