It seems dangerous to ignore the majority of Vehielce shoppers, hoping that a minority of well-off buyers will choose your product over the competition. 

Moderate income consumers and probably Ford assembly line workers need them, but do Ford stockholders need them?

During Ford's "One Ford" era, Ford of Europe took care of small car development for Europe and pretty much the Rest of the World. Ford has one of the most incomplete passenger vehicle lineups now and American Ford models are usually niche models when exported to other parts of the world, they're either too expensive or too big. The world still needs models like the Fiesta and EcoSport SUV. Right now, Ford has the subcompact Puma crossover but it doesn't sell it in global markets despite the subcompact B-segment being one of the most popular segments in most markets outside North America.   

Yup, been saying this for a long time. Killing off its small (former) global ICE models was definitely not a smart move. 

Yes, it looks like Ford  nobbled both of them right for the start…

Fair comment and observation. VW UK website prices……https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/en/new.html ID.3 ………….£30,850 ID.4…………..£39,580 ID.5…………..£41,080 There may be more costs on those to get drive away but I think it examples your thoughts regarding Ford pricing and profitability, begging the question, is VW “giving them away”?   Compared to the Ford MEB Twins, the Mach E now looks an absolute bargain.    

https://electrek.co/2024/12/26/volkswagen-to-cut-35000-jobs-but-keep-factories-open/        

I was going to make the argument for number 2 with Vignale but I think Ford pulled the plug on that.  I don't see any current models that have the Vignale trim available anymore (going on ford.co.uk).  I thought Vignale was a soft and safe way for Ford to enter the luxury market in Europe without trying to launch Lincoln and losing a ton of money.  Guess that didn't pan out either. 

To be fair, most of Tesla's "recalls" are just OTA software updates. They really need to start differentiating or not classifying certain things as recalls.

That's the problem in a nutshell.   Explorer was supposed to be the Focus replacement but someone (maybe Farley?) saw that it wouldn't make money at the price VW is selling its ID.3 and Renault is selling its Megane, so Ford Europe is pricing it to make sure it covers its costs. Consumers aren't stupid... these are not compelling products at those price points.    The slow sales of the Explorer/Capri twin is direct result of the pricing strategy. It's almost as if someone wanted them to fail... If Ford can sell a larger EV imported from Mexico for lower price then a locally made EV, then what is the point of keeping the local manufacturing footprint?