Ford’s Ecosport without rear wheel, which is the facelift version of the SUV was spotted near Chennai, India by a Team-BHP reader. Ford is already exporting this Ecosport to Europe, where the spare wheel has been removed from the tail gate.
This design wasn’t preferred by Europeans and so it has been removed. The ground clearance of the Ecosport has been lowered by 10mm to accommodate the wheel and 1.5-litre diesel engine’s power has been increased by 5 horses to 93bhp making it more powerful than before. Then the other new features include colour-screen display, electric window switches and even ESC (electronic stability program).
The Ecosport in India will continue to come with the same three engines and rear wheel mounted on the tail gate.
Ford at the moment has no plans to introduce the Ecosport upgrade and it is seen that Indians generally prefer the Ecosport with a tailgate as it gives it a muscular look and also with no spare tyre and just a puncture kit, it might just not be ideal for Indian customers.
The Ecosport is the only modern-day compact SUV, and the other one in this segment is the Quanto. Mahindra will be upgrading the Quanto this year with multiple changes on their first compact SUV.