Spied: 2012 Ford EcoSport spotted in China (again)
While the whole of India saw the Ford EcoSport unveiled at the 2012 New Delhi Auto Expo, it was a close-to-production concept version which means that the production model *will* look different. Unfortunately, no one has been able to spot the production version of the Ecosport in India. This is probably because the Indian testing phase hasn’t begun yet (correct, Ford India?).
The same is not the story in China though. Production mules of the Ford Ecosport have been spotted in China earlier. Now, thanks to our friends at Auto Sohu, we see new spyshots of the production trim of the Ford EcoSport. Interestingly, the dimensions of the Ford Ecosport haven’t changed one bit in the production version.
The alloy design has not changed, neither has the tailgate mounted spare wheel design. We are expecting the front to keep the wide chrome grill however, headlamps will not be carried over from the concept avatar. They might feature a string of LEDs as that has become the norm for all manufacturers. Leaving that aside, we think that the production version will be very close to the concept one and that’s definitely a good thing.
No one knows what the interior looks like because Ford smartly gave the concept version tinted windows to hide the interiors. Some information that we are dead sure of is that the Ford EcoSport will be powered by a magical 1.0L Petrol Ecoboost engine which produces 120 PS and 170 Nm of torque while returning 20% better fuel economy compared to a conventional 1.0-liter engine. The diesel variant will have a 1.5 Duratorq motor from the new Fiesta.
Ford plans to export the Ecoport to over a 100 markets from their Chennai plant and Nepal is expecting this model to be exported from Chennai by December.
[Source - Auto.Sohu.com]