The first Ford SUV to be designed by Pininfarina will be a C-segment SUV that will take on the likes of the next-gen XUV500, Tata Harrier as well as the MG Hector in India
Pininfarina S.p.A. is an Italian car design firm that was acquired in 2015 by the Mahindra Group. The Italian design company is famous for designing a whole lot of exotic cars in the past, ranging from Fiats to Ferraris. However, Pininfarina has never designed a car for the Indian market, but it looks like that fact is soon set to change.
Back in 2017, Mahindra & Mahindra and Ford Motor Company had signed an agreement to explore possible cooperation on products, technology as well as distribution. The two later went on to form joint venture, with the JV set to develop, market and distribute Ford-branded vehicles in the country.
Since Ford handed over its entire Indian operations to Mahindra, the Indian firm has the responsibility to design Ford cars for the country. Now, it has been decided by Ford that its upcoming SUVs for India will be designed by none other than Pininfarina. However, the American carmaker has cleared the air by emphasising on the fact that handing over the design work to Pininfarina has no link to Mahindra’s ownership of the Italian company.
With a legacy of designing some of the greatest looking supercars, we just can’t stop wondering how good the upcoming Ford SUVs in India will end up looking like. The first model to be designed by Pininfarina and developed by the Ford-Mahindra JV will be a C-SUV, which will share its platform as well as powertrains with the upcoming next-gen XUV500.
Internally codenamed CX757, the mid-size SUV will put up against the likes of the Tata Harrier, MG Hector as well as the donor car, the Mahindra XUV500 in the Indian market. The Ford C-SUV is expected to come equipped with a 2.2-litre oil burner producing around 180 PS power, as well as a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine that makes 190 PS power.
These are the same powertrains that were recently introduced with the soon-to-be-launched 2020 Thar, and will also be seen under the hood of the upcoming second-gen XUV500.