Ford has teamed up once again with its Chinese partner Jiangling Motors for another new model planned to be sold exclusively in the People’s Republic. The Equator Sport is making its official public debut at the Guangzhou Auto Show as a new rival for the Honda CR-V and the likes with rugged looks and a spacious interior.
If the name rings a bell in your mind, that’s probably because Ford unveiled the large three-row Equator in March this year. This new SUV shares its name but Chinese media reports it’s not based on the same bones. The Equator Sport has a wheelbase of 2,765 mm (108.85 in), which is 140 mm (5.5 in) shorter than the larger Equator with 2,865 mm (112.8 in).
Gallery: Ford Equator Sport
While mechanically not related, the two SUVs use a very similar design language. The Equator Sport features the same large radiator grille at the front flanked by thin LED headlights with C-shaped DRLs. The side profile is muscular with wide wheel arches hiding 20-inch wheels and plastic cladding in the lower section of the doors. The rear end is also very similar, though the smaller model doesn’t have a LED stripe connecting the taillights.
Inside the cabin, there’s room for five passengers, whereas the larger Equator can be had with either six or seven seats. The dashboard design features the same dual-screen layout, though the surrounding trim looks a little less glitzy.
See Its Larger Brother:
Under the hood is a 1.5-liter turbocharged gasoline engine, for which Ford says is brand new and this is its first application in a production model. The peak output of this unit is 170 horsepower (127 kilowatts) and 192 pound-feet (260 Newton-meters) of torque. It is mated to an automatic transmission, though we don’t know whether it sends power to the front or to all four wheels. The claimed maximum speed is 112 miles per hour (180 kilometers per hour).
In the gallery above you will find live photos from the Guangzhou Auto Show, which the Wheelsboy车轮哥 team kindly allowed us to share with you.
Source: Ford, Wheelsboy