It is common knowledge at this point that Mahindra and Ford are in a partnership in India to develop new cars for the market. The two companies have already announced that they will launch an all-new SUV in the Indian market. While the SUV will come to the market at a later stage the first car that the two brands will together produce will be an all-new electric sedan in the Indian market. The new electric sedan will be based on the Ford Aspire, albeit with a twist. The Ford Aspire being talked about here is the international variant of the car and not the sub-4 meter compact variant that is sold in India. Given that the upcoming car will be an all-electric model, the sub-4 meter rules will not be applicable to it and hence the long wheelbase version of the Ford Aspire can be comfortably used here.
The global variant of Ford Aspire is made in India but the sub-4 meter rules of the country do not allow it to be sold here. Instead, the company sells a shortened version of the sedan in the Indian market. Given that these rules will not be applicable on the upcoming electric car, Ford will use the longer wheelbase version of Aspire without the issue of higher taxes on the longer car. The longer wheelbase of the car will not only help with more roomier interiors, instead the extra space can be used to fit in more batteries in the upcoming electric car. This will translate into longer range of the car.
While the model is being supplied by Ford, it is the Indian UV maker Mahindra that is working on the electric powertrain for the upcoming electric car. The upcoming sedan will likely come with a 380V battery pack that will be rated for 50 kW or 67.98 PS. The batteries used here will be of Lithium ion type. The top speed of the sedan will likely be around 110 km/h and the range is supposed to be 150 kms on a full battery. However, these details remain only speculative as of now as the company has not confirmed anything so far.
Talking of speculations about the upcoming sedan, it is rumored that the all-new electric sedan will likely be launched around the end of 2019 or early 2020. The rumored price of the electric Aspire can be around Rs. 12 lakhs, but the several subsidies on electric cars in India ought to sweeten the deal for prospective customers.