Sometime back, Ford and Mahindra announced their partnership in India. Both brands will jointly develop all-new cars and products for the Indian market. A new report suggests that the new cars from the partnership will be designed by the iconic Pininfarina, the design house that has designed some of the most exotic supercars in the past.
According to ACI, Pininfarina, the Italian design house, which is now owned by Mahindra will take up the designing part of the new SUVs. However, the projects will be managed by Ford’s office based in Cologne, Germany. According to Ford, the project has been outsourced to Pininfarina after the management decided to go for it and not because of the fact that the design house is owned by Mahindra.
There will be a few products that will be designed by Pininfarina and the first product that will be launched will be a compact SUV. It will be sold through Mahindra as the all-new XUV500 while Ford’s iteration of the same vehicle is currently codenamed as CX757. Engine options and the platform will be common between both the options. Since Ford is missing from the segment right, the new SUV from the brand will take on the likes of MG Hector and Tata Harrier.
Also read: One family, Two Tata Harriers, Two accidents: Owners explain what happened (Video)
Also, the mid and top-end variants of the Hyundai Creta and the Kia Seltos will rival the new SUV. It will replace the current-generation XUV500 that has been around for many years now. It is not known yet who will be heading the designing of the all-new XUV500 yet. Mahindra will launch the all-new XUV500 next year in the Indian market while Ford’s launch will happen in 2021.
The second SUV from the partnership will be another all-new product that will go against the likes of Hyundai Creta, Nissan Kicks, Kia Seltos directly! It will be around 4.3-metres of length. Codenamed as BX745, it will be sold as Mahindra XUV400 (S204) through the Mahindra’s dealership network. Ford’s iteration of this vehicle will be designed by Pininfarina too. This model will get the 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine from mStallion range of Mahindra that develops around 163 PS of maximum power. The diesel variants will get powered by a 1.5-litre unit. Both manufacturers will use the same engine options.
The Ford EcoSport’s next-generation model, which is codenamed as BX744 is currently under development and is likely to be the third vehicle that will receive design inputs from Pininfarina. It was expected to be launched in 2021 but no news has come on the development. It should be noted that Ford will soon launch the EcoSport with the Mahindra’s 1.2-litre turbocharged petrol engine that generates a maximum power of 130 PS and 230 Nm.
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