Our good friend at Indian Autos Blog has published firstever uncamouflaged spy pictures of the Ford’s revelation compact SUV EcoSport caught in the lens while on a trail-run in Chennai. The car looks almost production ready with all badges and bar code on suggesting that it is one of the fully ready units. The badging on the tail gate indicates it’s the top-end Titanium variant with TDCI (Diesel).
From the spy pics, it is evident that the 2013 EcoSport will have a diesel variant in the model line-up. The exact specifications of the diesel engine to power the EcoSport is yet to be officially revealed, it is highly believed to borrow the 1.5-liter TDCI turbo diesel unit which churns 90 Bhp of peak power and 200 Nm of peak torque, the same engine that powers the all new Fiesta sedan. Besides this the other engine option is expected to be the 1-liter, 3 cylinder, award winning EcoBoost turbopetrol engine.
This diesel variant is expected to be the most selling trim and it would be the timing of the Ecosport launch that will decide the fate of the SUV. However, experts believe that Duster stands nowhere in front of Ecosport as the latter has much more established brand value than the earlier and people know Ford better than Renault.
Ford India has confirmed that it won’t introduce the vehicle in 2012 and is looking at early 2013 as a probable timeline. The EcoSport is a sub-4 meter car and also gets a diesel within regulations (since it would fall in the ‘Small’ car category which attracts 12 percent duty only), making it eligible for small-car tax subsidy.
In China, EcoSport would be called as ‘YiBo’ and the price is expected to be somewhere around Rs 8.8 lakh. With the Renault Duster about to be launched in India, Mahindra mini xylo slated to launch in 2 months, Upcoming Premier Rio with 1.3-litre Fiat Multijet and Maruti XA-Alpha SUV when it hits production, the compact SUV segment is buzzing with new and attractive launches.
A year and half from today and we will get to see who stands the winner.
Also see – Ford revealed production version EcoSport at Beijing Auto Show
Source – IndianAutosBlog
