Ford unveils new compact SUV EcoSport

Ford India on Wednesday unveiled EcoSport, its new global compact sports utility vehicle in the presence of Alan Mulally, President and CEO, Ford Motor Co and other senior management executives. The company said that it will invest $142 million in the company's Chennai plant in the southern part of India to manufacture the model for the domestic and export markets.

EcoSport is the second of eight new global models that Ford plans to launch in India by 2015. Sharing the new B-Platform, the product is pushing the Asian and African markets in front as the company tried to attain annual global sales of 8 million vehicles by 2015. “EcoSport reflects our commitment to serve our customers with the cars and trucks they truly want and value. The product will be launched in the Indian market in 2012 and it has the potential to be exported to many other markets from India,” said Mulally.

Carrying a 1-litre, 3-cylinder new petrol engine, the EcoSport is likely to be sold first in Asia and South America. The company currently makes the Figo, Fiesta Classic and Fiesta and Endeavour in its plant at Chennai that has the annual capacity of 200,000 cars and 250,000 diesel engines. In addition, the company is also investing Rs.40 billion to build a factory at Sanand, Gujarat and $72 million by mid-2012 to raise capacity for diesel engines to 330,000.

“We expect 1/3rd of the total sales of Ford Motor Company to come from the Asia Pacific region. The new compact SUV will be eventually sold in 100 countries,” said Joe Hinrichs, Ford's group vice president and president for Asia-Pacific and Africa mentioning that the Indian market will be the third largest across the globe by the end of the decade.

The company has said in a statement that the new Ford B-platform family of vehicles will represent more than 2 million units of annual production as compact cars continue to drive global growth.