Made-for-India Ford C-SUV to be available in 5- & 7-seat versions - Report
Like Tata Motors, Ford will launch two versions of its C-SUV in India, one with five seats and the other with seven seats, suggests a report from The Economic Times.
Ford’s made-for-India C-SUV was announced in March 2018, when the company signed a MoU with Mahindra to co-develop it. “A firmed-up agreement on C segment SUV will be announced within a month,” a person in the know of the alliance partners’ joint projects has told The Economic Times.
The report says that the sourcing for the C-SUV codenamed W601 and W605 has begun, suggesting that a duo like the Tata H5X (known in production form as the Tata Harrier) and the Tata H7X is planned. This doesn’t come as a surprise, though, if the recent market trend is considered along with the fact that the platform underpinning Ford’s C-SUV will have the capability of spawning a seven-seater.
The made-for-India Ford C-SUV will share underpinnings with the next-gen Mahindra XUV500. Reports suggest that Mahindra will scrap the current XUV500’s platform and use an all-new platform for the second generation model. Production of the Blue Oval’s C-SUV will likely be assigned to Mahindra’s Chakan factory.
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Ford and Mahindra had agreed to evaluate co-development of a B-SUV and an electric vehicle also last year. Regarding those, the source mentioned above said: “Negotiations for the B-segment SUV and an electric vehicle architecture are progressing well.”
[Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com]