By Indian automotive market is one of the toughest to crack in the world and cost play a crucial for the success too, which is manufacturers share platform to keep the investors happy. Hyundai-Kia, Renault-Nissan, Skoda-Volkswagen – all of them had success by sharing engines, features and other things as it reduced cost but in the end, customers got really good products. The partnership between Ford and Mahindra had the same expectations like this.
Even though everything started on the right path and the future looks bright with lots of new models coming for both brands to improve sales. But eventually, everything has been called off and the exact reasons are not known yet. Mahindra went ahead with the XUV 700 and they are going to launch it sometime later this year but Ford has an even bigger task as they just don’t have the platform currently to go ahead with the project.
The upcoming C-SUV is designed by Pininfarina in Turin, which is owned by Mahindra and the initial designs look awesome according to some engineers. Now the company is planning to take the Territory platform from Chine, which was developed with the JMC or Jiangling Motors Corporation in China. Then it was updated to meet the global standards with the help of Ford’s R&D centre in Australia as they are behind many of the Asia models.
The platform is built at a cost and it will be ideal to be used in India. Now the company want to integrate the design into this platform and it could have the same size as XUV 700. The interior of the Territory is modern as it is packed with features like a panoramic sunroof, the latest Ford infotainment system, Ford Pass, Ambient Lights etc. The C-SUV is expected to be powered by a 2.0 L diesel engine from Endeavour along with a new 1.5 L EcoBoost engine assembled in Gujarat but the launch might be delayed.
