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Old 26th February 2011, 22:14   #181
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re: Force Motors SUV to be launched in end-2010. EDIT : Spotted again. Pics on pg.15

Disclaimer: I may be working with Force Motors soon.

The launch has been delayed becuase the interior/grille/engine is getting minor tweaks/redesigning for looks/mileage.

Believe me its a cracker SUV coming up.

Sorry I can't divulge anything more.

Over and Out. Cheers.
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Old 26th February 2011, 22:39   #182
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re: Force Motors SUV to be launched in end-2010. EDIT : Spotted again. Pics on pg.15

Quote:
Originally Posted by Skyline GT-R View Post
Believe me its a cracker SUV coming up.
I love Chinese Crackers, especially when you can get proven stuff like Safari, Scorpio, Innova etc for the same price with much better after market support.
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Old 14th March 2011, 14:36   #183
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re: Force Motors SUV to be launched in end-2010. EDIT : Spotted again. Pics on pg.15

4000 suv's for 1st year are planned. Some top people of industry are getting added to Force team. Seems good with experienced people joining also some experienced companies like lotus, Mercedes Benz are getting associated to improve performance of vehicle in all aspects.

Force hopes to sell 4,000 SUVs in 1st year
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Old 14th March 2011, 16:08   #184
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re: Force Motors SUV to be launched in end-2010. EDIT : Spotted again. Pics on pg.15

If they price it between 8-12 lacs, I feel they can achieve 4,000 (or may be more). However, in this price range there are better and proven products available.
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Old 14th March 2011, 19:37   #185
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re: Force Motors SUV to be launched in end-2010. EDIT : Spotted again. Pics on pg.15

@Amtak I agree there are more proven cars in that price range,but not too many choices.Anyone trying to buy a 10 lakh ruppee suv has only the Scorpio or the Tata Safari to choose from,and both are long in the tooth.

With the facelifted safari(the Tata Merlin) i bet Tata is going to jack up the prices to 12-13 lakhs.
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Old 14th March 2011, 19:43   #186
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re: Force Motors SUV to be launched in end-2010. EDIT : Spotted again. Pics on pg.15

Its a low risk gamble by Force. Its a mish mash of existing Force powertrain, parts in a chinese UV. Even if the project goes tits up they do no loose much. Its a dissapointing strategy from one of the countrys oldest UV makers.

What Force needs (actually should have had at least a decad ago) was an all new UV platform to base a new generation of people carriers, SUVs, pick ups etc.
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Old 16th March 2011, 16:34   #187
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re: Force Motors SUV to be launched in end-2010. EDIT : Spotted again. Pics on pg.15

Read in burnyourfuel that the expected launch date is May 2011 and the price tag is around 10 lakhs, not bad for a merc engine SUV.
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Old 16th March 2011, 16:56   #188
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re: Force Motors SUV to be launched in end-2010. EDIT : Spotted again. Pics on pg.15

they have planned a very realistic sale target @ 350 nos per month, keeping in mind there new entry into personalized passenger vehicle segment with low dealer network.

This can be a dark horse, lets wait & see what new they are offering other than merc engine to distinguish themselves.
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Old 16th March 2011, 17:12   #189
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re: Force Motors SUV to be launched in end-2010. EDIT : Spotted again. Pics on pg.15

If it is priced at 10 L, then i guess they may find good number of customers for that. Even there earlier product Tempo Trax was a good product but couldn't handle competition from Sumo & Qualis. It was one of the spaciest vehicle i have ever seen. It was quite comfortable as well considering its price & class in which it used to run. It was very tough vehicle as well.

I am sure Force SUV will be interesting one. It will have there standard features like space, toughness & VFM

Best of luck to force motors

Last edited by aniketi : 16th March 2011 at 17:13. Reason: spell corrected
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Old 6th April 2011, 12:40   #190
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re: Force Motors SUV to be launched in end-2010. EDIT : Spotted again. Pics on pg.15

Latest sightings of the Force Motors SUV courtesy Autocar India:

Force Motors SUV spied in India | Autocar India

As per the report they are still testing it to ensure that there are no glitches after the launch. I guess things are shaping up good as far as the exteriors were to go by.
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Old 6th April 2011, 15:24   #191
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re: Force Motors SUV to be launched in end-2010. EDIT : Spotted again. Pics on pg.15

Quote:
Originally Posted by CARDEEP View Post
Latest sightings of the Force Motors SUV courtesy Autocar India:

As per the report they are still testing it to ensure that there are no glitches after the launch. I guess things are shaping up good as far as the exteriors were to go by.
I second your opinion. Immediately on seeing the snaps in Autocar India, that's what struck me. For once, I guess, Force Motors would have got the design right in this model. But, we need to wait to see the car without camouflage to find out whether the predictions are right or not.
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Old 7th April 2011, 12:41   #192
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re: Force Motors SUV to be launched in end-2010. EDIT : Spotted again. Pics on pg.15

The exterior style seems to have changed.
The front is changed from vertically stacked lights to a wider stance with horizontal lights(maybe the camouflage does the job).
But the rear looks just like the Foday Explorer. I still pray in vain that it's their in-house project with Merc engine rather than a chinese tin can.
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Old 8th April 2011, 08:46   #193
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re: Force Motors SUV to be launched in end-2010. EDIT : Spotted again. Pics on pg.15

Quote:
Originally Posted by arvi86 View Post
I second your opinion. Immediately on seeing the snaps in Autocar India, that's what struck me. For once, I guess, Force Motors would have got the design right in this model. But, we need to wait to see the car without camouflage to find out whether the predictions are right or not.
This is turning to be a long wait, the profile under the covering seems like a Safari only.
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Old 18th April 2011, 20:36   #194
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re: Force Motors SUV to be launched in end-2010. EDIT : Spotted again. Pics on pg.15

BSM interviews Mr. Prasan Firodia,MD,Force Motors. Here are some Q&A's pertaning to the new SUV:-

Quote:
Is it true that the new SUV will take after the China-made Guangdong Foday Explorer III, as reported?
The SUV has 85 per cent local content. Bottom-up, the chassis is completely new, designed by Force. It is a new-generation C in C chassis for which there is a complete robotic welding line coming up; the ride and handling, including suspension, is designed by us, and Lotus, the globally renowned automobile engineering consultant, fine-tuned the ride and handling (such as steering and suspension).
Moving up, the driveline is completely localised. It has a 2.2 litre engine, licensed from Mercedes Benz or Daimler. You look at any other critical element such as the steering gear and rack, wiper motors and blades, tail and head lamps — they are all localised. The complete body will be welded at our Pithampur (Madhya Pradesh) plant. The name of Guangdong came up because we are looking at some elements of plastic and sheet metal for the car from there. Mercedes Benz Technology (a 100 per cent subsidiary of Daimler and a consultancy) has done the complete vehicle electronic mapping, that is, all the communication inside the vehicle. It helped since the quantum of electronics is substantially higher than what we are used to.

What cross-competencies will help you in building the SUV?
For the investment that we are putting in (Rs 150 crore), it is a great product to put out. We had already licensed the driveline technology from Daimler. It was easy to get Daimler experts to come in and help because of our 30-year-old relationship with the company. We could validate a new chassis in-house and just go to Lotus for their expert opinion since a new chassis was being considered as a means to upgrade our current products with new ride and handling standards. All we had to do was put a body over these elements. This allowed us to make the product in 19 months.
Earlier, we had also managed to save costs through common platforms in terms of driveline technology, for example. But mostly we are installing dedicated facilities for the SUV. A new facility in the Pithampur plant will have a dedicated body shop, assembly line and a final touch-up line. The initial capacity will be 12,000 SUVs, which can be extended to 24,000 with negligible investments. We have created a dedicated team of about 28-30 focused on the SUV, most of them with passenger-vehicle work experience. On marketing, there are dedicated dealerships, workshops across India because the aspiration of the target consumer is different from that of a person driving a Trump or a Trax, which are rural utility-based products.

What will set your product apart from the others in the market? How will you engineer the launch to stand up against the likes of Mahindra Scorpio and Tata Safari?
We will be talking about a Daimler driveline in an SUV priced at Rs 12 lakh. Who wouldn’t want a Mercedes engine at this price? It will have performance parameters that have been fine-tuned by some of the best consultants. Our creative agency, Lowe Lintas, is working on the communication campaign to highlight the USP of the Daimler driveline. The benchmarks are some of the best in class. The ride and handling has been the result of testing and tuning done by Lotus Engineering. It will have a new chassis design and even the size of the vehicle will make it stand out. The driveline will have unmatched torque while the power to weight ratio and noise and vibration levels will be better than the industry benchmarks. The C-in-C chassis that we are using is more rugged and has better control than a tubular chassis or C chassis. We are doing a teaser from this month onwards.

Would you work on the corporate brand before the SUV launch to make it more familiar to passenger car consumers?
Not before the SUV launch. There will also be a corporate branding exercise right after. It is not that we are hanging our hat completely on the SUV because our bread and butter will remain commercial vehicles. So, the corporate branding will help the other brands as well. The SUV, on the other hand, will have the potential to take our organisation into a different league. So, we have been holding the launch to get it right.

Why are you targeting 4,000 SUVs in the launch year, given that a total of 272,733 units were sold last year?
The market in which our SUV will operate sells about 50,000-60,000 units a year. We are not yet ready with our front-end to target larger numbers. Neither do we want to spread too thin. Feedback and a smaller start will let us tweak the vehicle on a short notice. We do want to extend our network but we don’t want to force someone to invest since it needs dedicated facilities. Hence, it requires time to build up dealer demand. On the commercial vehicle side, we have 160 dealers.

The full interview can be had here

Last edited by benbsb29 : 19th April 2011 at 12:50. Reason: Removed font tags from post.
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Old 18th April 2011, 23:41   #195
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re: Force Motors SUV to be launched in end-2010. EDIT : Spotted again. Pics on pg.15

Relief and proud that it's not a chinese tin can but an indigenous attempt by Force motors,except the engine part of course. But 12 lakhs is a lil' bit overpriced,something starting at 10 lakhs for the base variant would have been fine.
But am more excited about another part of the interview towards the end.
"There is also a new van in the works which will be smaller than the Traveller, with about seven-eight seats that can be used as a passenger vehicle for a large family. It should be out by 2012."
Any more news on THIS!!!

Last edited by DicKy : 18th April 2011 at 23:42.
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