Ford EcoSport: the BIG reveal before the launch

Ford EcoSport;  the very mention of this name has been conjuring up excitement among car enthusiasts, global motoring press and general public since the compact crossover was unveiled at the 2012 Delhi Auto expo in January last year. Over the last year it has been a tumultuous journey of spy shots of various kinds, price speculations, faring up against the competition, foreign launches and finally a mega media drive in Goa for the EcoSport involving over 200 journalists from across the globe. Now, just two days before Ford announces the prices and officially launches the car, we have searched our pages and decided to bring to you (our loyal readers) the top nine highlights of the EcoSport’s journey over the last one year. 

We have however, not included the many spy shots as we now know what the entire line up is as well as the features on the vehicle thanks to a leaked official brochure that is now available on the official Ford India website.   

The first in the list is the media drive in Goa. We got behind the wheel of the 1.0-litre Ecoboost engined version and were quite impressed with what Ford had to offer. A preview of the compact crossover on our upcoming cars page also offers a comprehensive outlook of what the Ford EcoSport is all about.   

Next in the pipeline is an exclusive story published in February this year where the EcoSport was spotted standing next to its chief rival the Renault Duster at an undisclosed location. The pictures give us an idea of size of both vehicles and how they will fare up in the ‘my car looks bigger than yours on the road’ battle. 

Continuing with the size battle, a yellow EcoSport was spotted near Chennai in April parked between a Maruti Suzuki Swift and a Volkswagen Polo. We did a ‘scientific’ comparison of all three and realised that the EcoSport is a little man with big shoes but will gladly undertake any challenge that its rivals throw at it. 

The Ford facility in Chennai currently exports a lot of cars to various LHD and RHD markets and the EcoSport will play a major role in making the numbers. From Chennai the EcoSport will go to Nepal, South Africa, Australia, and the Middle East. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg; Ford plans to export it to over 60 countries by the end of 2017 and this includes a locally made version for the Russian market in 2014. This is all in addition to the big numbers that Ford is experiencing in Brazil with the compact crossover. 

China, currently the fastest growing car market in the world, gets its own version of the EcoSport made locally and to the liking of the Chinese market. It was launched in China on the 20th of March and is longer, slightly wider and is only available with two petrol engines.            

Our first inkling of the EcoSport’s entry into the Indian car market is when the American automaker launched its urban discoveries contest on the first of March. It was pretty simple; one person get a chance to win a brand new EcoSport by finding an undiscovered a place in their city and showing it to the world. It could be anything from a small temple to a big monument. A total of 35 participants would be selected for the first round. The 35 participants would be given a Ford EcoSport to explore their city with two friends and capture the experience on camera. Out of the 35 participants, the best will win a brand new Ford EcoSport.

The penultimate story involves a British Firm, Bluechips, that has introudced an uprated ECU for the Ecoboost engine. it now produces 25bhp and 30Nm of torque more from the 1.0-litre Ecoboost engine! It is likely that with car tuners getting more popular in India, Bluechips might bring the Ecoboost tuning box here once the engine get put into more number of vehicles in the Indian market. 

Finally, an Economic Times story on the 29th of  March speculated that the EcoSport will have prices starting at Rs 5.96 lakh and go on to Rs 9 lakh for the top of the line Titanium Diesel variant. While this would make the EcoSport a slayer at both ends of the price spectrum, we believe that Ford will price the EcoSport in the range Rs 6.5  to Rs 12.5 lakh and this should still give a bright enough flame to light its highway. 

Links to the latest set of stories like the official like the launch date and the beginning of bookings have been listed below. We are as excited about the EcoSport as you are and will bring you live updates from the launch and obviously the prices once they are announced, so stay tuned to CarWale on the 26th of June at 12:30pm for all the details as they emerge!    

Watch our video preview of the Ford EcoSport

Ford Dealers begin taking bookings for EcoSport

Ford EcoSport to be launched on June 26

Edit: The Ford EcoSport has been launched for Rs 5.59 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi)

Edit: Here is our live coverage of the launch for the Ford EcoSport