The Ecosport is a subcompact 5-door SUV with an FF and AWD drivetrain, which has been in production since 2003. It was initially produced by Ford Brazil until 2012 when Ford began assembling it in different countries, including Romania, India, Russia, Thailand, and North America.
First Generation (2004-2012)
Ford based the first generation on the European Ford Fusion and the Fiesta. It became the best-selling Ford in Brazil, selling over 700,000 units in 2011. The cars were available in the following engines, all of which were inline-four engines:
- 1.0L Zetec-Rocam supercharged 8v petrol engine which produced 70 kW (available until 2006 only)
- 1.6L Zetec-Rocam 8v petrol/ethanol engine which produced 82 kW
- 2.0L Duratec 16v petrol engine which produced 107 kW
- 1.4L Duratorq TDCi diesel engine which produced 50 kW (this was not available for the Brazilian market)
All the car engines came with either a five-speed or six-speed manual transmission apart from AWD variants with the 2.0L Duratec engine, which got a four-speed automatic transmission.
Second Generation (2012-present)
The second generation was assembled by Ford in Brazil, based on the B2E platform of the 2011 Ford Fiesta. It was launched on 14th July 2012 but had been introduced to the Indian market on 4th January 2012 at the New Delhi Auto Expo. It would take one year for it to be available in Australian finally. Ever since its introduction in Australia, the best 12-month sales volume was 2,453 units in 2015.
- The initial trim model was the Titanium 1.0, which came with a 998cc 1.0L premium unleaded petrol engine that reached peak output of 92 kW and produced a torque of 190 N.m, sending power to the drive wheels through a 5-speed manual transmission.
- The Titanium 1.5 came with a 1498cc 1.5L premium unleaded petrol engine that reached peak power of 82 kW and produced a torque of 140 N.m. It came with a 6-speed automatic transmission.
In 2014, Ford introduced the Ambiente and Trend trims. The Ambiente came with a 1498cc 1.5L petrol engine that reached 82 kW of peak power and produced a torque of 140 N.m (you could not find an Ambiente with a 1.0L engine). Cars in this trim came with either the 5-speed manual or 6-speed automatic transmission. The Trend trims used the same engines offered for the Titanium trim, which is the 1.0L and 1.5L engines with the same specifications.
All the models used premium unleaded petrol with the two engine variants until 2017 when Ford introduced a new 1.0L regular unleaded petrol engine (92 kW and 170 N.m). After that, the powertrain options included a 1.5L regular unleaded premium engine, which produced a maximum power of 90 kW and torque of 150 N.m. Both these engine variants used a 6-speed automatic transmission.