The Ford Territory crossover will launch in Brazil in August. That much was revealed by Lyle Watters, president of Ford South America and International Markets Group, in a recent Ford podcast.
Watters said that Ford Territory pre-orders will open on August 7th in Brazil, and that the crossover will start arriving at Brazilian Ford dealerships in early September.
The Territory will join just two other SUVs in the Ford Brazil portfolio: the EcoSport and Edge ST. The Territory will slot in between those two crossovers and will “complete” the Ford utilities lineup in Brazil, which means that the Escape (Kuga) and Explorer are not planned for the South American country anytime.
Ford states that the Territory will come with a range of features typically reserved for more premium and more expensive vehicles. Wireless device charging, a 10-inch digital gauge cluster, and several new connectivity features will all make their way into certain trims of the Territory.
The Ford Territory and Territory EV have been on sale in China since the 2019 model year. However, the models are not actually Ford products in the purest sense. That’s because the Territory is a rebadged Yusheng S330, which was developed and is produced by JMC Yusheng – Ford’s Chinese joint venture partner.
In China, the Ford Territory between the Ford EcoSport and Kuga (Escape). Ford Motor Company’s move to sell the Territory in Brazil follows closely its debut in the Philippines in July 2020.
Ford Brazil sales fell 55 percent in June 2020 compared to June 2019. The results were severely impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in lower consumer demand and ongoing product availability issues. However, one bright spot was the Ford Ranger, which became the country’s best-selling midsize pickup truck. The development is noteworthy given that the vehicle has been outsold by the Toyota Hilux and Chevrolet S10 in the Brazilian market for roughly the past two decades.
We’ll have more on the new Ford Territory soon, so be sure to subscribe to Ford Authority for around-the-clock Ford news coverage.
Comment
It seems that Carlos Arroyo Turon (former JMC-Ford & Ford Otosan Design Director) incorporated Ford’s Kinetic Design into the Yusheng S330 (which looked like an enlarged pre-2018 EcoSport). I guess this explains why it was easy to turn it into a Ford Territory.
Its platform looks like a combination of the EcoSport’s and Escape’s. At the rear, it has an independent Control Blade suspension, typical design found in other C-segment Fords and Mazdas.
PS: Carlos Arroyo Turon was a designer at Hyundai in Europe, he was also a designer at Bertone. He left JMC-Ford in 2019 and joined the company that’s reviving Bertone.