Ford Do Brasil Unveils New Ka Hatchback, Sedan For Global Markets

Cameron Aubernon
by Cameron Aubernon

Last week, Ford do Brasil unveiled the new Ka and Ka+, set to be built and sold (almost) worldwide in short order.

Just-Auto reports the city car will come in both five-door (Ka) and sedan (Ka+) formats, with power to the front coming from either a 1-liter 12v TiVCT or 1.5-liter 16v Sigma flex-fuel three-pots. The 1-liter, in particular, will be assembled in Brazil at Ford’s Camaçari factory, while both Kas will roll off the line at its São Bernardo do Campo plant.

The Ka was developed in the country with the help of engineering teams in Europe and the United States, and will be assembled in China, Thailand, India — where Ford of Europe will likely receive theirs — and South Africa.



Cameron Aubernon
Cameron Aubernon

Seattle-based writer, blogger, and photographer for many a publication. Born in Louisville. Raised in Kansas. Where I lay my head is home.

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  • Iamwho2k Iamwho2k on Aug 14, 2014

    Neither the Ka's nor Fiesta's designs translate well into a sedan. Maybe they should start with making a good-looking sedan THEN turn it into a hatch. BTW, well before this Internet was a thing, I wrote a letter to then-president Jacques Nasser imploring him to bring the original Ka to America. He actually replied, saying thanks but no thanks.

  • Motormouth Motormouth on Aug 15, 2014

    It looks like the front clip of a Fusion has been put through a hot wash and then glued to a generic hatch/saloon body. I almost feel bad for the Ka. What was once a design icon has become a parody of itself, simply making up the numbers in a Ford range that clearly values high-margin SUVs and commercials over most passenger cars (perhaps aside from the cash cow Focus).

  • Redapple2 Love the wheels
  • Redapple2 Good luck to them. They used to make great cars. 510. 240Z, Sentra SE-R. Maxima. Frontier.
  • Joe65688619 Under Ghosn they went through the same short-term bottom-line thinking that GM did in the 80s/90s, and they have not recovered say, to their heyday in the 50s and 60s in terms of market share and innovation. Poor design decisions (a CVT in their front-wheel drive "4-Door Sports Car", model overlap in a poorly performing segment (they never needed the Altima AND the Maxima...what they needed was one vehicle with different drivetrain, including hybrid, to compete with the Accord/Camry, and decontenting their vehicles: My 2012 QX56 (I know, not a Nissan, but the same holds for the Armada) had power rear windows in the cargo area that could vent, a glass hatch on the back door that could be opened separate from the whole liftgate (in such a tall vehicle, kinda essential if you have it in a garage and want to load the trunk without having to open the garage door to make room for the lift gate), a nice driver's side folding armrest, and a few other quality-of-life details absent from my 2018 QX80. In a competitive market this attention to detai is can be the differentiator that sell cars. Now they are caught in the middle of the market, competing more with Hyundai and Kia and selling discounted vehicles near the same price points, but losing money on them. They invested also invested a lot in niche platforms. The Leaf was one of the first full EVs, but never really evolved. They misjudged the market - luxury EVs are selling, small budget models not so much. Variable compression engines offering little in terms of real-world power or tech, let a lot of complexity that is leading to higher failure rates. Aside from the Z and GT-R (low volume models), not much forced induction (whether your a fan or not, look at what Honda did with the CR-V and Acura RDX - same chassis, slap a turbo on it, make it nicer inside, and now you can sell it as a semi-premium brand with higher markup). That said, I do believe they retain the technical and engineering capability to do far better. About time management realized they need to make smarter investments and understand their markets better.
  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X Off-road fluff on vehicles that should not be off road needs to die.
  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X Saw this posted on social media; “Just bought a 2023 Tundra with the 14" screen. Let my son borrow it for the afternoon, he connected his phone to listen to his iTunes.The next day my insurance company raised my rates and added my son to my policy. The email said that a private company showed that my son drove the vehicle. He already had his own vehicle that he was insuring.My insurance company demanded he give all his insurance info and some private info for proof. He declined for privacy reasons and my insurance cancelled my policy.These new vehicles with their tech are on condition that we give up our privacy to enter their world. It's not worth it people.”
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