With the South African market traditionally closely linked to the European market, it might possibly mean seeing a return of more nameplates of the Blue Ovel to local shores, although at this stage it is purely speculation.

Back to Ford’s plans for Europe. "Our plan is to actually grow our market share... in a marketplace that is almost fracturing in terms of the number of competitors," Jim Baumbick, Ford's European president, told Reuters. "We need to stand out in a crowd."

Five of the new models will be passenger cars, including a small electric car and a small electric SUV that will be built at a Renault plant in northern France using the French automaker's technology, and three SUVs that will be offered as hybrids as well as fully electric models.

The second largest American automaker also criticised Europe's push towards electric vehicles, saying "CO2 targets must reflect actual consumer demand" and that legislation should support plug-in hybrids and extended-range electric vehicles rather than fully electric cars alone.

As it restructures across Europe, Ford has closed its Saarlouis plant in Germany and is cutting jobs at its factory in Cologne.

Just a decade ago Ford was Europe's fourth largest automaker, selling more than one million cars across the continent, according to data from industry lobby group ACEA. Last year, the company sold just over 426 000 cars and fell to eighth place, behind Mercedes-Benz.

Ford is attempting to revive its fortunes at a time when Chinese automakers, including BYD and Chery, are expanding into Europe with rapidly growing sales. Whilst Ford managed sales growth of just 0.1% in Europe last year, BYD's sales grew by almost 270%.

In the commercial vehicle sector, Ford has remained one of Europe's biggest brands, though Stellantis sells more through a combination of several marques.

The company announced on Monday that it will immediately launch sales of its Ranger Super Duty bakkie in Europe for use in emergency services, forestry, mining and the military. Some automakers with spare capacity have turned their attention to the booming defence sector, and Ford noted in a separate blog post that several governments in Europe and North America had engaged with it on the matter.

"By using commercial, off-the-shelf solutions from Ford, governments can access world-class technology at a fraction of the time and cost," the automaker said in the post.

Ford added that it will also launch sales later this year of a fully electric transit van designed for urban areas.

• In South Africa Ford is amongst the top five vehicle manufactures will sales dominated by its Ranger bakkie but also the large Everest SUV and its medium size SUV, the Territory, and the Ford Mustang, a niche player. The last time Ford had a new small passenger vehicle locally available was the Ford Fiesta in 2022.