New Ford Puma Compact-SUV Unveiled — Will It Make Its Way To India?

American car manufacturer Ford has unveiled their latest compact-SUV for the global market, the Puma. The new Ford Puma SUV is offered with the brand's latest design language and is also packed with a host of features and equipment.

The 'Puma' moniker was first used by a compact sports-coupe offering from Ford between 1997 and 2002. Ford has now revived the Puma nameplate for their new compact-SUV. The new Ford Puma will be positioned between the entry-level EcoSport and the more premium Kuga in the international market.

Ford is concentrating on new segments, including UVs to help them improve the volume sales of their products in various markets. Ford hopes that the Puma once introduced will help them enter new segments, while also attracting an entire range of new buyers and potential customers.

In terms of appearance, the new Ford Puma offers a sporty design. The front comes with Ford's signature hexagonal grille with a blacked-out mesh, flanked on either side by LED projector headlamps with integrated LED DRLs (almost reminiscent of their flagship Ford GT hypercar).

The front bumper also houses the fog lamps at either ends while a large air intake is present at the centre. From the side, the Ford Puma can easily be passed off as a beefed up hatchback, due to its compact profile, raked windshield and rear glass area.

The side profile also comes with subtle creases and lines, accentuating the look while the flared wheel arches and the roof-integrated spoiler add to the sporty appeal of the compact-SUV. The rear profile also follows the same theme with the high-spoiler mounted stop lights, followed by the well designed wrap-around LED tail lights and the 'P U M A' badging on the centre of the boot lid.

Inside, the Ford Puma comes with an all black cabin, with a host of features and equipment. This includes a 12.3-inch fully-digital instrument cluster, a large floating touchscreen infotainment system with Ford's SYNC3 system, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and navigation. Other features include: hands-free tailgate, pre-collision assist, pedestrian detection, emergency brake assist, TPMS, ESC, adaptive cruise control and a semi-autonomous parking assist; among a host of other equipment.

The new Ford Puma is said to be available with the brand's famous 1.0-litre three-cylinder EcoBoost turbo-petrol engine. The EcoBoost engine will be further mated to an electric motor and will offer two states-of-tune. Both powertrains will be mated to either a six-speed manual or automatic gearbox.

Thoughts On The New Ford Puma

The new Ford Puma is the latest global compact-SUV from the American car brand. The Ford Puma will go on sale in international markets soon, however, there is no news of it coming to India, at least for now. If it does come to India, it will be an interesting product from the brand and could help Ford India to improve in the country.