(July 19, 2011) ST. PETERSBURG, Russian Federation — Production of the all-new Ford Focus began Monday at Ford's Vsevolozhsk Plant near St. Petersburg.

The new Ford Focus will be assembled in Russia in all three body styles — four-door, five-door and wagon. The popular five-door door version began rolling off the assembly line today, while the four-door Focus and the wagon will go into production in September and January, respectively.

More than 5,000 Russian customers have already ordered a new Focus. Russian customers will be able to choose from four trim levels, 10 exterior colors and four engines (three gas and one diesel).

The Focus has been a popular vehicle in Russia since it first went on sale there in 1999. To date, more than 500,000 Ford Focus units have been sold in Russia.

More than 400,000 of these cars were built in the country at the Ford plant in Vsevolozhsk, the first production facility owned by a global automotive company in Russia, and which started manufacturing the Ford Focus — the first car off its production lines – in August 2002.

Since then, during seven years the Ford Focus was the best selling foreign made car in Russia, including in 2010.