Reports of Ford’s Ecosport not falling under that magical mark of 4 meters to qualify as a ‘Small’ car in India have been doing rounds thick and fast. In fact, this 4 meter mark question has been a keen point of interest for many prospect customers in India who have been waiting very eagerly for this product to hit Indian shores.
A tweet from Hormazd Sorabjee, Editor Autocar India, said that Ford has confirmed that Ecosport would be ‘sub 4 meters’ after a lot of nudging with this question. For all of you who do not know, here is the regulation of excise levy on cars in India.
For a car to be categorized in the ‘Small Car’ category, it’s engine capacity should be less than 1.2L for Petrol and 1.5L for diesel and it should be under 4 meters in length. ‘Small’ cars attract an excise of 12%. The moment it gets over the 4 meters mark or the engine capacity criteria is not met it falls into the next slab which attracts double the excise at 24%. For more info on excise duty structure please read here.
Since Ecosport’s engine options here in India fall under that criteria defined above it was just a question of this compact SUV’s length. Depending upon the final pricing of this car, ultimate on road price could be lesser by as much as Rs 30,000-40,000 or more. This could also help Ford price EcoSport more aggressively in the market to take on the current slew as well as the new launches scheduled in the form of Renault’s Duster and Mini Xylo. Maruti’s recent shortening of Dzire (to qualify it as a ‘small’ car) has enabled it to go cheaper by Rs 15,000-20,000 on the on road prices which are also partially offset by the raised excise.
With this, it also makes one point clear that somewhere Ford must have made it tighter inside to reduce on the size. Since we have seen the front and rear space in the pics, the boot might have been compromised a little.
Now, after making so much noise it all boils down to Ford to ensure things get materialized by pricing EcoSport sensibly and not doing a Fiesta again!
Check out for Ford’s EcoSport Gallery here.
By,
Saad Khan
Editor MotorBash
