Ford Ecosport launch on April, launch strategies changed by Ford

Plenty of rumors are spreading about the launch of Ford Ecosport. But most of them are not true. A big rumor is spreading like virus in auto sites that Ford Ecosport will be launched on March 4th. But that is not true at all. It is the Ford Fiesta celebration edition that will be launched on March 4th not Ecosport.

The Indian union budget 2013 showed no mercy to the car market. Indian car market is now experiencing its least growth in the 21st century. Car sales fall down due to increasing fuel prices and high interest rates for car loans. SUVs where the only hope for car makers to come up from the loss. But Indian government has hiked the taxes of SUVs by a fair percent. A totally unexpected hit to the Indian car market.

Ford Ecosport will not be troubled by the the tax hike of SUVs. High taxes are applicable for Suvs with more than 4 m length and engine capacity more than 1.2 l in petrol or 1.5 l in diesel. Ford Ecosport is entirely different from other SUVs. It is sub 4 m compact and has an efficient engine too.So Ecosport don't need to worry about Suv taxes. Government has not given a clear definition for SUVS, currently all cars with ground clearance over 170mm are considered as SUVS. Ford has to keep Ecosport launch on delay until government gives a definition more Suvs and make necessary adjustments. But  Ford has to adopt some new strategies to price Ecosport competitively. They need time for that and we can expect the official launch in April 1st or later. CBU import duties have been increased from 75 % to 100%. So importing car parts to India will be really pricy for Ford. So we can expect heavy localization of Ecosport.

Government has also increased the tax for diesel cars which will increase the price of diesel cars by a fair amount. So Ecosport diesel will be more pricier than what we expect. But price hike for diesel engines will increase demand for petrol engines. Fords 1 l eco-boost engine has an important role here as it can attract people with good fuel efficiency and power too.

Anyway we are pretty sure that Ecosport won't launch on March. We expect the price of base petrol variant to be nearing 6 lakhs and the top end diesel to be priced 8.5lakhs. We suspect the base petrol to be priced 5.99 lakhs and the top end petrol to be priced 6.99 lakhs. The diesel is expected to be priced from 7.25 lakhs to 8.50 lakhs. The engine options will be the 1.0 l Eco-boost and the 1.5 l diesel carried over from the Fiesta. A 1.5 l petrol may be available too. Ecosport will also get a dual clutch automatic transmission from th new Ford Fiesta.

The new Ecosport is going to be a heck of a trouble for Renault Duster and also a threat to other cars like Suzuki Swift, Hyundai i20 and Swift Dz-ire.

The 1 l Eco boost engine will produce 120 HP of power which is going to be awesome for a sub ten lakh car like Ecosport. The 1.5 l petrol will produce 110 Hp and the 1.5 l diesel will produce 90 HP of max power figures respectively.

Lets wait a little more time. Ecosport will be here soon. We can hope that union budget won't alter the pricing or success of the Ecosport.