Ford launches compact utility vehicle Freestyle at Rs 5-7 lakhs

During the last two years, the Indian passenger vehicle segment registered a growth of between 1-1.2 per cent. And in the same time, Ford India's sales grew by 10 per cent - with the popular EcoSport triggering the compact SUV rage and accelerated sales numbers. This time, with the Ford Freestyle, too, the company hopes to have a similar winner at hand.

"The EcoSport was catering to the market between Rs 10-Rs 12 lakhs. With this car we will create a segment of utility vehicles (UV) and in the Rs 5-7 lakh," said Anurag Mehrotra, president and managing director of Ford India, launching the Ford Freestyle UV in petrol and diesel variants at a price starting from Rs 5.09 lakh to Rs 8 lakhs.

Ford assess that at a time when most of its competitors who offers in the crossover hatch segment, tend to keep a higher price range between Rs 7.8 lakh to Rs 9.9 lakh. "The consumer simply did not have any option to upgrade in the Rs 5-7 lakh. I think we wanted to fill that gap," says Mehrotra.

The company says that it has put its 'heart and soul' while building the car. The design of the car was done at the Australia design studio of Ford Motors, which caters to the company's Asia-Pacific market. But the car was tested in India and almost 70 per cent of its engineering is done in India.

The Ford Freestyle will be made out of Ford's Sanand plant, the same plant which makes the existing Ford Figo and Ford Figo Aspire models.

Gaurav Gill, international WRC rallyist from India, tested the car in Tamil Nadu's Kolli Hills. The 1,300 metre climb uphill included 70 hairpin curves. The 26.7 kilometre stretch, part of the Kolli Malai road was covered by the rallyist in just under 18 minutes, under test conditions performed by experts.

The company has not done any advance bookings of the car but most dealers would be accepting bookings from April 27. The car, built on the Ford Figo platform, adds on a lot of improvement, and the company is treating the Freestyle by all means as a new car, and not as another model of the Figo.

Gill and others who have driven the car, said they are excited about the capabilities of the car to handle bad roads. The Ford FreeStyle has a ground clearance of 190 mm, compared to 174mm in the Ford Figo.

It gets a new improved manual gear which is lighter and shifts faster. However, an AMT option is not available.

The topmost Titanium+ model comes with a new dual suspension and better body roll control of Active Rollover Prevention (ARP) which does selective braking of tires.

But with improved suspensions and a responsive steering, the car comes with four airbags, also a first in the segment. The Freestyle is likely to take you across bad roads with ease and comfort, promises a dual tone interiors and panel work inside.

With all this, the crown jewel that sits inside the car is the brand new flat 6.6-inch touchscreen infotainment system, which is small but adequate while driving. The system is compatible with Apple Carplay as well as Android Auto.

The boot space is significant though a bit smaller (257 litres) than Ford's earlier hatchbacks (300 litres). All-in-all Ford feels that it has a good package in hand. The introductory prices, the company says, are starting from Rs 5.09 and goes up to Rs 6.94 lakh for the top-variant petrol and Rs 7.89 lakh for diesel.

The company promises a fuel economy of 19.9 kmpl for its 1.2 litre petrol engine while an average of 24.4 kmpl for the 1.5 litre diesel, producing 96 Nm and 100 Nm of torque respectively.