Britain is preparing to wave goodbye to another icon – the Ford Fiesta which is, historically, the UK’s most popular car.

It will have been in production for 47 years when the final model rolls off the production line next June, and the car, which is in its seventh generation, has clocked up a whopping 22 million sales.

In addition, Ford is ceasing production of the S-Max and Galaxy MPVs in 2023 with a view to focusing more on electrification.

When it arrived in the UK back in 1977, the Ford Fiesta cost just £1,856. These days, models are priced from about £16,600.

Despite holding top sales spot over the years, the likes of the Vauxhall Corsa and Ford Puma are proving more successful recently. So, it seems an appropriate time to draw a line under the Fiesta which has being developed as a hatchback, small van, rally car, hot ST and XR2 variants, plus SUV-like styling in the Fiesta Active.

In a statement Ford explained: “As we get ready to transition to an electric future, we will discontinue production of S-Max and Galaxy in Valencia, Spain, in April 2023 and discontinue Fiesta production in Cologne, Germany, by end of June 2023.

“At Ford in Europe, we are accelerating our efforts to go all-in on electrification with our passenger vehicles being fully electric by 2030 – and all vehicles across our Ford portfolio by 2035.

“We will introduce three new exciting electric passenger vehicles and four new electric commercial vehicles in Europe by 2024. We plan to sell more than 600,000 electric vehicles in the region by 2026, and the electric passenger vehicle production at the Cologne Electrification Centre will reach 1.2 million vehicles over a six-year timeframe.”