It was a model paved the way for a new category, that of small SUVs. Developed in Brazil in 2003turned into a regional success that later spread to other markets and led local sales in its segment for almost 20 years. But now it’s news because will cease to be manufactured worldwide.
It’s about the Ford EcoSportwhich will come out this year from the assembly lines of the automaker’s plant in Romania, where it is still produced to supply the European market, according to information released by the company. In Brazil, its birthplace, it stopped manufacturing at the end of 2020. The model will continue to be sold in Argentina during this year until the available stock and the deliveries foreseen by savings plans are exhausted.
The EcoSport was a development of Ford’s regional design division from Ford Fiesta platform, which belongs to segment B of the market. By transforming into a SUV “accesible” for a general user buying midsize sedans, it became a sales success and established a new category upon its introduction. So much so that in the years after 2003 the rest of the brands were also launching their small SUV modelsfrom Renault and General Motors to Jeep, Nissan, Honda and Volkswagen.
The disappearance of EcoSport responds to the new global strategy defined by Fordwhich is abandoning the manufacture of sedans (such as the Focus) and small models (Ka, Fiesta) to concentrate on pickups and SUVs from higher segments (such as the Bronco), within the framework of the transformation and electrification of the industry. The Craiova factory in Romania, in fact, will receive US$300 million of investment to launch a new light commercial in 2023 and a fully electric model from 2024.
As a consequence of its new roadmap, The oval carmaker closed the three remaining plants in Brazil at the beginning of 2021 (one of which produced the EcoSport) and in September announced the same for its factories in India. The EcoSport units that are still sold in Argentina come from that country, which continues to supply the remaining export commitments.
The model led the girls SUV category (or B-SUV) in the local market from its launch until the emergence of the Volkswagen T-Cross, in 2020. Last year, Ford patented 7453 units of the EcoSport and in the first two months of 2022 sold 965according to data from the Association of Automotive Dealers (Acara).