Ford EcoSport and Renault Duster spied standing side-by-side

One is a French crossover that is currently dominating its segment and the other an American one that is looking to dethrone the former. Yes, we are talking about the Ford EcoSport and the Renault Duster and they have been spotted standing side by side at an undisclosed location outside Chennai.  

The pictures show us that most of the vehicles surrounding the Duster are Ford’s leading us to believe that the American automaker is pitting the EcoSport against its French rival to do a comparison test of both machines. 

From the pictures we can see that the EcoSport is smaller in length but is evenly matches the Duster on height.  Both vehicles definitely have a strong street presence with their low stance and rather large front fascia. At the back where the Duster has a lot of shiny bits to make it noticeable, the EcoSport has a spare wheel to do exactly the same job. The EcoSport’s roof rails are smaller as compared to the Duster but are contrast coloured as opposed to the Duster’s black rails. 

Not much can be said about a comparison of the interiors of both vehicles as we are yet to see both Indian spec models go head  to head in any form, though it must be noted that individually we know what both of them look like inside. In terms of mills, it is likely that that this is the diesel Titanium variant as the Duster in the picture is the 110bhp RxZ diesel variant. 

Some reports suggest that both cars will be shipped off to one of Ford’s global facilities to do bench marking, but this seems unlikely as where ever the EcoSport is going to be sold, the Duster is also sold. Moreover, since Ford already has a testing facilities here and we are going to be one of the EcoSport’s biggest markets it would not make sense to do research elsewhere. 

While the Duster was launched in July 2012 and was an instant hit for the French automaker, Ford is yet to announce a launch date for the EcoSport and has managed to generate enough interest in the car to go past the initial hype. We are eagerly awaiting the launch of EcoSport and will gladly pit it against the Duster to see how they match up, so stay tuned for all the details.   

Click here to read our preview of the Ford EcoSport

Click here to read our road test of the Renault Duster

Click here to see our video review of the Renault Duster

Click here to see all the latest developments on the Ford EcoSport

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