Ford Motor Co., the world’s third-largest automaker, began building the new Fiesta small car as part of its plan to sell the same models in more countries.

The Cologne, Germany, factory is the first plant to produce the subcompact, Ford said in an e-mailed statement. The Fiesta will also be assembled in Asia later this year and North America in 2010.

The Fiesta is the first vehicle to emerge from Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally’s “One Ford” strategy of having the automaker’s regional units work more closely together. The Fiesta was designed by Ford’s profitable European unit because of its expertise with engineering small cars.

Starting in 2010, Ford is bringing the Fiesta and five other new small cars to North America, the main source of the Dearborn, Mich.-based company’s $23.9 billion in losses in the past 10 quarters.

The Focus model now sold in the U.S. only shares 20 percent of its parts in common with the European version. That will rise to 90 percent with the new model, North American chief Mark Fields said in a speech at an industry conference in Traverse City, Mich.

Options and body styles on the Fiesta will be tailored to meet local consumers’ tastes depending on where it’s sold, Ford said.

Ford said it invested 455 million euros ($679 million) at Cologne for Fiesta production, which will be about 148,000 units this year. A plant in Valencia, Spain, will also begin producing the new model next year.