Ford and Mahindra working on 2 new SUVs: Will be highly localized

The partnership between Ford and Mahindra has recently been announced. As a part of this alliance, the companies are going to share SUVs, develop electric vehicles together and even share engines.

Mahindra is a self proclaimed SUV manufacture that says they won’t make anything other than SUVs, MUVs and MPVs. On the other hand there is Ford who has a lot of experience and history in making these types of cars. This is one perfect alliance that can spawn a lot of great cars. We can already predict a great lot of SUVs coming out of this tie-up. The cars will be made in India and will be highly localized.

Now coming to the two new SUVs, they will be competing in two very important segments. Both Ford cars are aimed at capturing the segments of the Jeep Compass and the Hyundai Creta.

Hyundai Creta Competition

Ford and Mahindra would want to cash in on this market segment that is currently rulled by the Creta. The joint venture will either use the SsangYong Tivoli (Mahindra’s S201) or Ford’s own Vitara Brezza rival (codename: B763), that is currently being developed.

The Ford and Mahindra/SsangYong SUVs will however be every different in style and proportions. The Ford will be a bigger car, while the Mahindra will be a sub-four meter.This is because the Ford already has the EcoSport in the sub-sour meter game.

They will not want to make the EcoSports sales vulnerable.

Jeep Compass Competition

The Jeep Compass has appealed to the buyer looking for the lifestyle SUV in India. And sales have been good. The car is not a value for money proposition but more of a personal and emotional choice.

We should rather say brand conscious choice. But if we look at sales numbers and the overall segment performance, the XUV500 is selling in double the numbers and is the choice that is clearly winning people’s minds and hearts. With the new generation XUV500 coming-(W601), and Ford will be a partner on the platform, we can see an American rival to the Jeep Compass soon. The car will be as big as the XUV500, but with a five-seat layout.

These cars are expected to come in by 2020. And both will be changing the segment thinking for buyers as valuable choices. We are not sure on what basis and which engines will be used, and will share more information for that soon. Two new SUVs in both the companies line-ups is sure going to give other manufactures a lot to think about.