Following the merger of Ford's North American Special Vehicle Team (SVT), the European TeamRS and the Australian FPV divisions to the development of Ford's global performance vehicles, Ford's Advanced Product Creation and Performance Vehicles director Hermann Salenbauch said that the decision to sell Ford Focus RS/SVT to North America depended on feedback from the media and customers.[ However, the product would only appear 2 years after the release of the third generation Focus models.] On August 4, 2011 Ford's global boss for small cars, Gunnar Herrmann, revealed to magazine Drive that the third iteration of the hot-hatch was in the works. The new RS was expected to arrive towards the end of 2015 in Europe and the rest of the world; in North America it will arrive after 2015. On January 21, 2015, Ford released a teaser video previewing the 2015 Ford Focus RS and on February 3, hosted a web-streaming reveal event from Cologne, Germany.

At the 2015 Geneva Motor Show the production-ready MKIII Ford Focus RS was unveiled packing the turbocharged 2.3 L; 138.0 cu in (2,261 cc) EcoBoost engine found in the Mustang with over 320 hp (240 kW). In the Focus RS, the engine itself produces…