Recently reports have come out that Ford Motor India is planning on entering the MPV or people-carrier segment in India. This is to expand their business in a segment set to be booming with major automakers soon. Their vehicle of choice will be a derivative of the B-Max, sold in developing markets.
Industry insiders know that Ford had earlier planned on entering the MPV segment here in the past. But due to constraints in timing and high development costs, they decided to hold back. This may not be the case now as Ford have a stable partner alongside them in Mahindra.
The recent joint venture between both automakers has added more fuel to its development plans. Ford will look on using the Mahindra Marazzo as a case study for their vehicle. This MPV will be a re-engineered version of the Marazzo, retaining the Mahindra’s FWD ladder-frame chassis.
It will be benchmarked alongside the B-Max, which is a decent seller abroad. As per reports, Mahindra will provide their 1.5 litre turbocharged petrol and 1.5 litre diesel motors to Ford, specially for this MPV. Both engines come mated either to a 6-speed manual or a 6-speed automatic transmission.
It will be locking horns with the Toyota Innova Crysta, Renault Triber, Mahindra Marazzo, Maruti Suzuki Ertiga and XL6, along with the upcoming Kia Carnival across all affordable MPV segments here. The people-carrier will be heavily localised and feature a host of equipment. Ford will hope that Mahindra’s expertise in pricing and market knowledge will come good while developing their MPV.
(Note: The pictures of Ford B-Max is just used as an illustration, however, the Ford’s all-new MPV may defer from the model shown here.)
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Also see: REPORT: Ford evaluating MPV for India based in Marazzo
Source: AutoCarIndia
