Ford India is all set to bring back the Toyota Fortuner rival, Endeavour by 2025.
Ford sparked speculation about the Endeavour possibly returning to India by filing a patent for the vehicle in India, posting new job openings, and reversing course on the sale of its Chennai plant. In fact, according to our sources, the American automaker is preparing to resume sales in India after closing in 2021.
The current generation Endeavour, which is sold as the Ford Everest SUV in markets like Thailand, is the subject of the filed patent. This generation would be new to our market because it was not introduced in India during its 2022 launch in international markets.
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Exterior: The Endeavour is referred to as the Everest internationally. The Endeavour stands out from other cars on the road thanks to its imposing front grille and 50mm wider and longer dimensions. The front grille of the Endeavour is black honey in colour and has two horizontal slats that cut through it. The slats are either blacked out or chrome depending on the trim. The SUV has a chrome tip lower bumper, twin cube LED headlights, LED fog lamps, and C-shaped LED DRLs. The Everest brand and LED tail lamps are housed in a thick band at the back of the Ford SUV. The SUV's alloy wheels range in size from 17 to 21 inches, depending on the model. It is available in four trim levels on the international market: Ambiente, Trend, Sport, and Platinum.
Interior: The all-new three-row cabin features a more modern dashboard design centred around a 12-inch touchscreen (10.1-inch on lower trims) that is oriented portrait-wise and runs Ford's most recent SYNC infotainment software. There is also a 12.4-inch digital instrument cluster (8.0-inch on entry-level trims).
Powertrain: Similar to the new Ranger, the new Everest will come with a new 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel engine in addition to two 2.0-litre turbo-diesel engine options (a single turbo and a twin-turbo version). Depending on the engine, a 6-speed manual or a 10-speed automatic gearbox are available. Also available in certain markets is the SUV with 2WD.
Safety: Nine airbags, hands-free parking, adaptive cruise control with lane keep assist, and Ford's Pre-Collision Assist with Intersection Assist—which enables the vehicle to apply the brakes in the event of an impending collision with another vehicle or any oncoming traffic—are among the safety features of the new Ford SUV.
The Endeavour will be put together at the company's factory in Chennai. The possibility of directly importing it is being considered. Given that fully assembled cars can still be imported into India without homologation (up to 2,500 units annually), Ford could bring the current Endeavour into India considerably sooner while preparing for local assembly in 2025. A fully imported Endeavour would also be competitive against the Toyota Fortuner, given that the latter's price has skyrocketed and top-end models now cost over Rs 60 lakh on the road. Additionally, Ford had previously stated that it was willing to consider selling direct imports to maintain a presence in the regional market.
The new Endeavour could be priced similarly to the Fortuner, but it would be more exclusive and sold in smaller quantities if it were imported into India. Since the premium SUV market has taken off, there will be a market for the Endeavour. Another option would be to assemble the SUV, but that would require more time given that Ford had previously stated that it would import some vehicles for the Indian market. The new Endeavour will therefore be a little more expensive, but it might be worth waiting for one!
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