Ford has officially launched the all-new Freestyle in India. The company has christened the car as a 'Compact Utility Vehicle', which essentially makes it a compact cross-hatch – a segment that appears to be drawing considerable attention from carbuyers in India of late. The Freestyle was unveiled in India as part of Ford's global unveiling of the car, and comes in four trims. Every trim gets both petrol and diesel engines, although there is no automatic transmission available with the Freestyle for now. Prices for the Ford Freestyle begin at Rs. 5.09 lac for the base Ambiente trim, and go up to Rs. 7.89 lac for the fully-decked Titanium+ trim.
The Ford Freestyle is styled around the Figo hatchback, but significantly differ in terms of the overall looks. It gets a host of blackened plastic cladding around the vehicle, although most of them are majorly aesthetic in nature. It also gets faux skid plates to both front and rear, and the claddings help the Freestyle differentiate itself from the Figo hatchback. The Freestyle comes with 190mm ground clearance, along with 15-inch blackened alloy wheels, roof rails and larger, swept-back headlamp units with LED lights. Inside, it gets an EcoSport-like dash on the top variants as it accommodates the Ford SYNC 3 infotainment system. The dual-tone colour scheme is also uniform across variants, along with 257 litres boot space, a total of 20 storage cubbyholes and 871mm legroom to the rear.
On the inside, the utility vehicle pretensions are aided by Ford's segment-first inclusion of active rollover prevention (ARP) bar, which works in tandem with the car's electronic stability programme (ESP). With ARP and ESP, the car can apply higher braking force to specific wheels, which in turn helps reducing engine torque to that section of the car. This will particularly help in stabilising the car in corners, and in case of oversteer, the car can compensate for the lopsided force and negate the impact to help stabilise the car. The Freestyle puts a lot of emphasis on safety, with dual-airbags being standard across all variants. It also gets traction control, ABS with EBD, and segment-first hill-start assist and electronically power-assisted steering wheel as well. The top-trim Titanium+ variants of the Freestyle also get six airbags in total.
In terms of the technology package, the Ford Freestyle gets the Ford SYNC 3 infotainment system on the top trim, with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Furthermore, it gets an integrated navigation unit, reverse parking camera, handsfree audio streaming and telephony, automatic climate control, and keyless entry and ignition. The powertrain has received changes as well, with the Freestyle featuring a new, 1.2-litre, 3-cylinder petrol engine that produces 95bhp and 120Nm torque. The all-new five-speed manual transmission also premieres with the Freestyle, and comes with shorter gear ratios, lighter overall weight, lesser noise and better overall efficiency. The 1.5-litre, 4-cylinder TDCi diesel engine is retained from the Figo, which still produces 100bhp and 215Nm torque.
The Ford Freestyle is now up for sale across all Ford outlets in India. If you're interested in buying the Freestyle, here's the variant-wise price breakdown of the all-new Ford Freestyle:
Petrol:
Ambiente: Rs. 5,09,000
Trend: Rs. 5,99,000
Titanium: Rs. 6,39,000
Titanium+: Rs. 6,94,000
Diesel:
Ambiente: Rs. 6,09,000
Trend: Rs. 6,99,000
Titanium: Rs. 7,35,000
Titanium+: Rs. 7,89,000