Force One debuts at Rs 10.65 lakh

Force Motors has launched its first offering for the SUV segment, Force One, in Mumbai. The SUV will cost Rs 10.65 lakh ex-showroom, delhi. The vehicle will hit showrooms on September 1 and managing director, Prasen Firodia (pictured) said the company plans to sell 4,000 units in a year’s time.

The launch is a milestone for the Pithampur-based company which has been associated with people-movers such as the Trax, Cruiser Classic and Judo which are popular in smaller towns and rural areas.

Amitabh Bachchan has been appointed as brand Ambassador for a four-year period. The filmstar was roped in as brand ambassador many years ago for the Maruti Versa along with his son, Abhishek. However, the Versa never really took off and sales remained sluggish.

Force Motors will retail the vehicle through a new division called the Force Motors Personal Vehicles Division venture. The SUV is a re-badged version of the Chinese Ford Explorer, popularly known in China as the Guangdong Foday Explorer III.

Force One has been launched as a 4X2 version with a 4X4 slated to debut in March 2012.

Under the hood, the SUV features a 2.2 litre common rail turbodiesel engine, an uprated version of the Daimler OM 611 engine. UK-based Lotus Engineering was roped in to fine-tune the vehicle.

Force One has been positioned above Tata Safari and Mahindra Scorpio, clearly a plan to position the vehicle in a niche of its own.The launch of Force One caps a week of several launches which include the all-new Swift, VW Jetta and refreshed version of the Honda Jazz.