Most cars go through a process of design development from the exaggerated sketch on the drawing board to clay mock-up model to a much more watered down final production prototype. However, the EcoSport looks like it just went straight from being a futuristic sketch on the drawing board to its final form.

Though we have all seen many pictures and the odd sighting in flesh of the EcoSport, when I do get up close to this new vehicle from Ford, I still can’t help feeling that it looks a bit ‘cartoonish’. Is it a SUV-like car or is it a car-like SUV?

Its design is unconventional, but not uncomfortable. It has urban chic written all over it, but it is certainly not metro-sexual. The best part though is that its design works, in an odd sort of way. It brings in a lot of freshness to the compact sports utility segment and it had better, after all, there is a lot riding on its tall shoulders.

To be fair, the EcoSport is an honest attempt at building a relevant urban SUV for the new-age automotive markets of the world like Brazil and India. But it also makes you wonder if it is deception on four wheels.

You see the EcoSport is based on the B-platform, in fact, the same Ford Fiesta B2E platform that is very versatile, but was originally used to build a sedan. From no angle does the EcoSport look like a sedan, but you do get the feeling that lurking under the skin is a three-box car.

Design

In terms of design, the EcoSport manages to excel in leveraging the platform’s strength in creating a compact SUV, which still manages to be very aerodynamic. There is enough road presence and purpose to the design. With the wheels out on the extremities of the vehicle, the raised posture and the spare wheel mounted on the hatch door, the EcoSport has that butch stance that we associate with SUVs.

But, it must be remembered that the design also cleverly uses visual cues to elevate itself into SUV territory. Some of the features that help it achieve this include the roof rails, the aggressive oversized bonnet grille, and the wrap-around rear glass that merges with the kink in the C-pillar, the large stalked door mirrors, the high shoulder line and the body-side cladding that visually raises the EcoSport even more than its already high 200mm ground clearance.

Cabin & build quality

The interior of the EcoSport has Ford’s signature details in many places. The centre stack is particularly familiar. The chunky steering wheel and the centre stack have largely been borrowed from the new Fiesta. The seats are comfy and sport contrast stitched faux leather, with horizontal support squabs. The bug-eyed dials are another novel touch. The trim level that I was driving was the Titanium with the optional additions and the engine was the 1.0-litre EcoBoost with a manual gearbox.

The interior has a certain feel of premiumness in terms of fit and finish quality, but the material quality is only about the same as that of the other vehicles in the sub-Rs.10 lakhs segment. The variant I was driving had six airbags, but I’m guessing that there will be lower trim variants without as many. But the side curtain airbags in the car apparently are the reason why there are no grab handles on the roof for the passengers.

The seat position is nicely raised and you do get a commanding view of the road, but the thick base of the A-pillar does increase the blind spot on either side. The small quarter glass doesn’t manage to offer much in terms of improved visibility. Storage options abound and the rear 60:40 split bench seat can also be folded and flipped forward for increasing the boot space. And because the spare wheel is mounted on the hatch door, the loading height is lower in the boot.

There is enough legroom at the rear. But even though the EcoSport’s overall width is more than the new Fiesta’s, the chunky door design tends to take up some of the lateral space. So, the rear bench will be a squeeze for three adults. The hatch door handle has been neatly integrated into the tail-lamp at the left, with the handle itself looking like a part of the lamp’s combination. The hatch door is hinged on its side to the left. It is said to have been strengthened and tested extensively. But my test vehicle did come up with a few rattles and squeaks towards the end of the test drive.

The rear glass is quite narrow thanks to the design and the need for retaining space for the spare wheel on the hatch. So visibility is a bit restricted. But you do get parking assistance. The EcoSport is also said to be capable of wading through 550mm of water, just right for the flooded streets in our cities during monsoon.

Performance

The only engine on offer during the test drive organised by Ford was the, now famous, one-litre EcoBoost engine. Combining direct fuel injection, turbocharging and variable valve timing, this engine manages to deliver bigger engine performance while staying frugal in its fuel consumption.

Said to be tiny enough to stand on an A4 sized sheet of paper and compact enough to be stowed away in an airplane overhead luggage compartment, the 999 cc, 3-cylinder EcoBoost engine is the smallest unit in its class. The engine is also said to have 25 per cent fewer moving parts and is constructed out of alloy steel (instead of aluminium) to ensure improved refinement levels.

The engine named 1.0L GTDI generates a precocious 125 PS of peak power at 6,000 rpm and peak torque of 170 Nm at 1,400 to 4,500 rpm. During my test drive the one character of the EcoBoost engine that I liked best was its refinement levels. The engine sound is actually healthy and gives you a lot of confidence. There is none of the shrill, unrefined whine that we are used to finding in some of the other 3-cylinder engines.

The performance characteristics of the EcoBoost engine also surprised me. For a one-litre class engine the sheer amount of power and torque available is quite surprising. And mind you the EcoSport weighs about 1,300 kgs unloaded, so it is not very light. The one observation that I want to make about its performance, however, is that the peak torque didn’t set in anywhere near 1,400 rpm as has been mentioned in the spec-sheet. The culprit must be turbolag, but during my test drive respectable amounts of torque became available only after the needle crossed the 1,800 rpm mark.

Overall, the engine is very usable in city and the amount of low-end torque available should see most users through. Only on the highway and only during very aggressive driving will a bit more torque in the low band be missed. As for its mileage, the real-time info display in my test car displayed a reading between 6 to 7 kmpl during the entire length of my drive. The average is not entirely reliable because of the relatively aggressive driving style adopted during the drive. But, it was only about a third of the ARAI rated mileage of 18.7 kmpl mentioned by Ford.

The EcoSport will also be offered with two other engines. A bigger 1.5-litre petrol engine – the same 1,499cc Ti-VCT mill from the new Fiesta – that will put out 112PS of peak power and 140 Nm of torque. This engine will be paired with both manual and automatic gearboxes. There will also be a 1.5-litre diesel engine that will generate 91PS of peak power and 204 Nm of peak torque.

The EcoSport’s ride quality is not bad at all. The steering is well weighted and aside of all the tech that it is loaded with like pull-drift compensation etc., it is quite precise. The suspension is also sorted and bad, patchy roads shouldn’t be a problem. However, though it is built on a sedan platform, some of the over-raised stance and the accommodating suspension mean that there is a bit of body roll that sets in when I took corners at speed.

Bottomline

The EcoSport has much going for it in terms of design, focused engine tech and features. To push the envelope Ford has loaded in tech like the Microsoft partnered SYNC system into the car’s audio and telecom features. And Ford India is said to be involving local emergency services to utilise the infrastructure if an emergency arises for the car and its occupants. The system auto dials the emergency services if an airbag is deployed or if detects an emergency ignition cut-off.

But apart from all this the most key metric that can enable Ford to make the EcoSport a really attractive proposition to buyers is the car’s overall length.

At 3,999 mm, the EcoSport meets the sub-4-metre lower duties stipulation and that basically means that the price of this compact SUV can be really aggressive (read affordable). The diesel and the EcoBoost engines will, of course, qualify for the lower duty too.

I expect prices of the EcoSport’s three engine versions and the ten trim levels between them to range between Rs 7 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, ex-showroom.

The EcoSport’s bookings start in June and deliveries start right after. Check back here for more updates next week.

Update (27th June, 2013): The price of the new Ford EcoSport has been announced. The price ranges according to the different variants are as follows.

New Delhi: Rs 5,59,000 - Rs 8,99,990

Chennai: Rs 5,68,937 - Rs 9,16,024

Mumbai: Rs 5,86,181 - Rs 9,43,750

Bangalore: Rs 5,68,937 - Rs 9,15,989

For the full technical specifications, click here.

For a the video of Ford EcoSport, click here.

muralidhar.s@thehindu.co.in

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