New Ford EcoSport likely to be launched in India only by early 2018

American carmaker Ford unveiled the new EcoSport in the USA in November 2016. Soon after the global unveiling, rumours were rife that Ford India will launch the new EcoSport in the festive season of 2017. However, emerging reports indicates the Indian market entry of the EcoSport will not happen this year.

The new EcoSport is expected to be launched in India in early 2018 reports Financial Express. Though the company has not mentioned a timeframe for the launch yet, it is understood that India launch has been scheduled soon after US launch in early 2018. Ford India will manufacture EcoSport for the domestic market as well as for US market.

The Indian and US spec models will have some differences. Biggest change is that the India-spec model will retain the boot mounted spare wheel while US spec will be devoid of this. Ford unveiled Asia-spec EcoSport (model with boot mounted spare wheel) in April in China.

The face of the compact SUV sports one-piece hexagonal grille in place of the split grille in the current version. This has been inspired from the bigger SUVs of Ford such as the Kuga and the Edge. The new grille houses two horizontal chrome slats, while the headlamps, fog lamps and the front bumper have been tweaked. The side profile remains untouched barring new alloy wheels.

On the interior, the EcoSport unveiled retains a dual-tone dashboard (black and beige) while the North American model has an all-black cabin. Current model on sale in India comes in black and grey finish and hence new model in India is also expected to carry over dual-tone finish.

Other notable addition will be a new dashboard, steering wheel, SYNC 3 infotainment system and a new 8-inch infotainment system at the centre of the new dashboard, compatible to Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

The current EcoSport India is sold with a 1.5-litre TDCi diesel engine, which is tuned to dish out 99bhp of power. The petrol mills are a 1.5-litre Ti-VCT and the 1.0-liter EcoBoost engine. These are expected to carry over in the new model without changes. An all-wheel-drive variant of the new EcoSport is also expected in India at a later stage.