The Ford Ecosport will soon be powered by a Mahindra 1.2L turbo-petrol engine which is more powerful and torque-ey than the 1.0L Ecoboost engine its replacing. Its set to launch in the first quarter of 2021.
Ford and Mahindra entered into an agreement in 2017 for collaboration in areas like connected car technologies, electrification and product development. The first vehicle to come out of this collaboration will be a Ford Ecosport which will be powered by a Mahindra engine. The car has now been confirmed for its launch in first quarter of 2021.
The Mahindra-powered Ford Ecosport will be powered by a 1.2-litre T-GDI engine that will be replacing the 1.0 liter Ecoboost engine in the Ecosport. The 1.2-liter petrol engine is a turbocharged gasoline direct injection unit and it belongs to Mahindra’s new mStallion family of engines.
It’s internally known as the G12 and the BS6 compliant version of this engine produces a rather impressive 130hp and 230Nm of torque. The engine will come mated to a 6-speed manual transmission as standard but Ford could also introduce a dual-clutch automatic gearbox option with this engine.
With this change of engine, the Ford Ecosport will have gained 5hp and 60Nm of more torque over the now-discontinued 1.0-litre Ford EcoBoost engine. Ford’s 1.0 liter Ecoboost engine was very renowned for it peppy performance but the high price of the Ecosport with this engine and low fuel economy did limit its appeal. Ford thus decided to pull the plug on this engine from the Ecosport lineup.
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But before this 1.2L T-GDi engine is offered in the Ford Ecosport, Mahindra will debut this engine on the XUV300 compact SUV this April. As for the competition, aside from the Mahindra XUV300, the Ford EcoSport will have to contend with the Hyundai Venue, the Tata Nexon, the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, and the upcoming Nissan and Renault compact SUVs.
Also Read : Next-Gen Mahindra XUV500 Is Just A Year Away; Launch in Early-2021
In another news, Ford has launched the new BS6 Endeavour in India with a new 2.0L diesel engine with an 10-speed automatic gearbox. Ford has discontinued the larger 2.2L and 3.2L diesel engines from the Endeavour and while this new engine is down on power and torque from the 3.2L diesel mill, the 10-speed automatic gearbox is the only of its kind.
