The 2012 Auto Expo saw innumerable number of launches from different manufacturers across different segments. Some caught a lot of people attention while few others didn’t quite achieve in making a mark. One such unveil that caught a lot of the buzz was in the Ford stable, Ford’s future SUV what like to call it, the EcoSport. The orange coloured EcoSport displayed at the Ford pavilion was surely an eye-catcher in every aspect. The buzz word floating around was the EcoSport being Ford’s take on the compact SUV segment. However, the EcoSport might not be as compact an SUV as you conceive. When Michael Boneham, president and managing director of Ford India was asked if the overall length of the EcoSport would be kept below 4 metres, he calmly replied ‘No’. The EcoSport is rather expected to feature an overall length of 4.25 metres which would be similar to the length of the old generation EcoSport model already being sold in Brazil.
The current EcoSport however will be completely new and likely to be debuted in India first. Designing the EcoSport below 4 metres and with an engine capacity of 1 or 1.2 litre would have called for excise duty benefits. But Ford has other plans in mind. Ford is not comprising on the cabin space and focusing on increasing the localization content to keep costs down. The decision might have been also prompted after there had been customer feedback about the rear seats being too cramped up. Ford is also most probably working on a sub 4 metre version of the car but is very tight lipped about its development currently. The EcoSport is likely to cost about Rs. 7 lakhs for the base petrol variant all the way up to Rs. 10 lakhs for the diesel top-end version. Apart from the EcoSport Ford is also considering the Fiesta hatchback for the Indian market, but will they bring it?
Source – Autocar India
