Ford will launch Ecosport production in Craiova end 2017
- To compete with the B segment SUVs sold in Europe, such as the Nissan Juke, Renault Captur, Peugeot 2008 and Opel Mokka, Ford launched the Ecosport model on the continent in 2014. This segment B SUV was already sold in Latin America since 2012. For European demand, Ecosport was not sourced from Latin America, but from India (from the factory located in Chennai which produces Ford models for the local market) . From autumn 2017, Ecosports sold in Europe will only be manufactured in Ford's Romanian factory in Craiova (230km west of Bucharest).
- The Ecosport will benefit from a restyling that will harmonize the style of the Ecosport front bumper grille with Ford’s other European SUVs, Kuga (segment C) and Edge (segment D). The restyled Ecosport (see photo) will be on display at the next Frankfurt Motor Show.
- The Ford plant in Craiova has been producing a single model since 2012: the B-Max, a B segment minivan, whose sales decreased from 66,000 units in 2013 to 37,000 units in 2016,a difficult situation, given the site's 100 000 units per year capacity. Ecosport production will saturate Craiova ‘s capacity at the end of 2017, as sales of B-Max and Ecosport models totaled nearly 94,000 units in 2016 and the 100,000 units should be reached in 2017. The site will possibly focus in future on the production of Ecosport alone.
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