The new Fiesta ST won’t come to SA because of poor fuel quality – but it won’t be the only car we miss out on
Local motorists looking to drive the upcoming Ford Fiesta ST
are set to be disappointed.
Speaking to Carmag, Ford South
Africa has confirmed that the car won’t be coming to the
country, citing ‘fuel quality’ as the primary reason.
Officials from the brand further suggested that South Africa’s
fuel would not be compatible with the petrol particulate filter
fitted to the Fiesta ST’s 1.5-litre engine.
Ford also confirmed to Carmag that it is currently
developing next-generation version of its Focus ST and Focus
RS, but it remains to be seen whether a similar issue will
prevent these upcoming models from being launched in South
Africa.
While this news may be a shock for some South African drivers,
it’s a problem that has been a long-time in the making,
according to experts.
Speaking to BusinessTech at the end of
2017, Naamsa fuel and
emissions working group chairperson Stuart Rayner explained
that South Africa is about 15 years behind the rest of the
world in terms of fuel standards and quality.
“With the widespread introduction of new technology including
new 4 way catalytic converter equipped vehicles in Europe
during 2018 we will now find that for the first time since the
1996 introduction of unleaded petrol in South Africa – that
many regular petrol engine motor cars as available to the
general public in Europe will not be able to be marketed in
South Africa,” said Rayner.
“This will effectively deny the motoring public access to
latest low emission vehicle technology,” he said.
He added that product restrictions are already being applied to
local companies by their foreign principles, particularly due
to the lack of availability of clean fuels (low sulphur fuel).
“It is illogical that vehicle manufacturers and importers
should continue to be penalised for not introducing latest
engine technology vehicles when many such vehicles will not be
able to operate on South African fuel, and those models
that are introduced may require expensive reverse engineering
to use older less efficient engines.”
Read: Here is the expected
petrol price for August
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