Ford Ecosport with ecoboost- key facts

Blogging from Goa

Below are some key information about the soon to be launched Ford Ecosport Urban SUV from blue oval. Got this from a media briefing last night, as part of Ford Ecosport Media drive in Goa.

Below: My first close look at the Ecosport and first photo. More photography happening today.

Below are some key points about Ecosport

• Ecosport will be available with 3 engine options- famed 1 litre ecoboost petrol engine (125 PS, 92KW, 170NM, 18.9 kmpl), 1.5 litre petrol engine from fiesta (112 PS, 15.6kmpl auto, 15.8 kmpl manual) and 1.5 TDCi diesel unit (91 PS, 22.7 kmpl)
• Ecosport comes with electronic power steering and not hydraulic power steering in most of the car. While hydraulic system needs energy all the time, Electronic unit doesn't spend energy when idle (i.e. driving in straight line). Electronic unit thus adds to fuel efficiency and is more sensitive to speeds and can give better control and stability (drift compensation). This alone contributes to 3% increase in fuel efficiency.
• Top variant would get keyless entry and push button start. Useful when hands are full
• To avoid stalling in an uphill situation and to prevent vehicle from rolling back, Ecosport comes with a Hill Launch assist that holds brakes for about 3 seconds, so that engine won't stall while you shift your leg between brake and accelerator
• Microsoft powered SYNC is another key feature in Ecosport. SYNC allows voice commands to operate music, calls, texting and so on. SYNC also has an emergency assist which calls 108, if airbag gets deployed or if fuel supply is cut off (it will pass GPS coordinates and facilitate communication between operator and occupants). When I asked if 108 call centre team is capable of handling these system generated calls, I was told that Ford has taken care of that and they've already worked with EMRI (institute that runs 108 call centre) to keep them briefed and prepared. This is great feature, but relies on local emergency response team for success. 5 million cars are using this technology so far and another 9 million will have it by 2015. 80% of Ford's customer who have SYNC are using it very actively.
• When asked, I was told voice recognition has been customized for Indian accent. Also there's no training session for this voice system, like we would do for Microsoft speech recognition.
• Ford is adopting a strategy that aims to reduce maintenance costs. A plastic cladding is offered in ecosport, which can take any hits easily, without damaging the metal all the time. If door is dented, no need to replace whole door, only the metal sheet can be replaced. If front bumper is damaged, only damaged component can be replaced, reducing overall cost of ownership.
• We were told in detail about the design- how curves are decided based on aero dynamics and how it can help in fuel efficiency. Ecosport has a mhu (co-efficient of friction) value of 0.371 ( I don't have this value for other cars, hence difficult to compare)
• Ford Ecosport target user Persona is Mr Sameer, a 31 years old city dweller with a kid, who is brand conscious, wants car for both weekdays and weekends, is tech savvy, puts family first and wants the brands he is associated with to help him in his social status. This is the segment of customers all compact SUV makers would be chasing.
• Ecosport can offer up to 702 litres of space when 2nd row seats are folded, good enough to carry a washing machine. When I asked if there'll be a provision to add 2 jump seats in the rear (like Quanto), Ford India MD ruled out the possibility siting safety concern.
• I raised a question about re-positioning hand brakes to free up more space between the seats. Ford said such a change is very fundamental to vehicle design and changing it will involve lots of money, hence can't be decided on the fly.
• Ecosport door can hold 2 bottles (1 litre and .8 litre) easily (Vista D90 could hold only a half litre bottle)
• There's no rear view camera and no touch screen entertainment system in ecosport. (duster added it recently). Ecosport gets NFG- near field graph and sound alert during reverse to aid in parking
• 550 mm water wading depth is pretty impressive. (Tata Safari has 300mm ONLY). 
• The tyres seem to be chosen for city use- to offer very low resistance. I would have preferred a slightly rugged tyres.
• One of the participant commented about the wiper design, which sort of looks odd. 

Ford has assembled all key people associated with Ecosport, from all over the world for this media drive, So that they can answer all technical, design and functional questions related to the car. Below is the best of ford team which was present.

In the centre (black shirt)- Mr Joginder Singh, President and MD, Ford India. Others: Mr Graham Pearson, 3rd from left), Ford APAC Vehicle Line Director, Small Cars, from Shanghai, Mr Juan De Pena (2nd from right), Small Car Segment Chief Engineer, APAC, Fabio Okano, Ecosport Vehicle Engineer Manager, Rodney Phillips (1st from left), APAC SYNC Engineering Manager, Frank Hoffman among others.

Below: Rear view of Ford Ecosport. Note that there's no visible door handle. Door handle is merged inside the tail lamp assembly.

I have some more points to share, but need to get ready for the actual drive now. Standby

UPDATE: Read Ecosport Review here