Thursday, August 25, 2016
By Kamal Swami
Ford readying for Hybrid EcoSport
With growing concern for pollution free environment car manufacturers are shifting towards electronic and hybrid cars. Following the same trend U.S. based car maker Ford is also speculating to introduce the hybrid version of its best selling compact SUV EcoSport. It is grapevine that generation next EcoSport could also include hybrid engine configuration. According to reports American car maker is searching for possibilities of introducing hybrid EcoSport during the year 2021.
It would be interested to know that EcoSport is of the highly demanded SUVs in Indian car market and the Indian arm of U.S. car maker exports EcoSport from its Chennai based production plant to various countries. If the reports regarding launch of Ford EcoSport hybrid are true, the Ford will be position to enjoy the benefits of Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electronic Vehicles (FAME) scheme introduced by the government of India. According to this scheme the manufacturers of hybrid vehicles are offered incentives up-to Rs. 29,000.
The existing version of EcoSport is offered with three engine options of two in petrol variant and one in diesel variant. The petrol variant is empowered with 1.5 litre Ti-VCT petrol engine followed by 1.0 litre EcoBoost petrol engine. The diesel variant is energized with 1.5 litre TDCi diesel engine. The prices of all variants fall in the range between Rs. 6.92 lakh and Rs. 9.82 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). At present company is working on bringing its facelift sometimes during the next year in Indian car market.
It would be interested to know that launch almost three years back in 2013, EcoSport continued to drive huge sales in Indian car market, till the launch of Vitara Brezza by country’s leading car maker Maruti Suzuki India Limited.
Yesuraja S
Sunday, August 28, 2016
I like my ford Ecosport