Ford India has been planning something very interesting for our market. Ford’s Endeavour has a huge fan following given its butch appeal and off-road capabilities. Ford also sells a ‘Sport’ variant of the SUV which was introduced in Australia in late-2019. The same variant with a ‘Sport’ badging at the rear has been spotted in India, hinting that Ford might launch it soon in India as well. The new version will have the Toyota Fortuner TRD Sportivo in its crosshair, and it would be interesting to see what happens when Ford takes the shot.
More details
The spied model is seen with the ‘Sport’ badge on the boot lid. The spy shot only reveals the rear end of the SUV and we can expect some sportier elements to make their way to the front-end as well.
Ford can include blacked-out elements in the honeycomb-pattern front grille, the lower half of the bumper, and outside rearview mirror housings along with blacked-out alloy wheels as seen on the Australia-spec model. As we mentioned earlier, the Endeavour is a popular offering in its segment and the butch appeal accentuates it even further. The ‘Sport’ variant will only make the Endeavour more desirable than before. If you’re wondering what it could look like, check out the picture below.
Expected features
The Sport variant’s cabin could get a few cosmetic updates such as an all-black theme to differentiate itself from the standard model. We have witnessed the same treatment being implemented by other manufacturers as well when they roll out sportier variants of their standard models.
We expect all the features on offer in the top-trim variant, including panoramic sunroof, terrain management system, 8-inch touchscreen infotainment with SYNC 3, active noise cancellation, and seven airbags, to be present on the ‘Sport’ variant, along with a few more goodies.
Expected powertrain
Ford is expected to offer the Sport variant with the regular model’s 2.0-litre EcoBlue turbo-diesel engine that puts out 170PS and 420Nm. This engine is paired to an India-first 10-speed automatic gearbox. But the enthusiast in us wants to see the 2.0-litre twin-turbo diesel engine being deployed in the Sport variant if the Endeavour.
The 2.0-litre bi-turbo diesel engine produces 213 PS and 500 Nm of torque. In some markets, it is a replacement for the 3.2-litre single-turbo five-cylinder diesel engine that develops 200 PS and 470 Nm of torque and was offered in India earlier.
Also read: This Heavily Modified Ford Endeavour Is The Wildest Of Them All
Adding to the joy of the upcoming festive season, Ford India recently expanded its Ford Freestyle model lineup with the edition of a new, top-of-the-line variant, Freestyle Flair. The Freestyle is considered to be one of the most driver-centric car in its segment and particularly appeals to the people who are more inclined towards driving pleasure. The new Freestyle Flair is available at an attractive, introductory price of INR 7,69,000 for petrol variant while at INR 8,79,000 for the diesel engine powered variant.