Force Motors has launched the Force One SUV with Amitabh Bachchan as the brand ambassador. The Force One gets a Mercedes-Benz licensed 2.2-litre common rail diesel engine producing 141PS of power and 321Nm of torque. This is the same unit that was powering the old C-Class. The engine is completely localised and built at Force Motors’ facility at Pithampur. The engine is mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox which is also from Mercedes-Benz. It gets dual mass flywheel which is first in the segment.
Mercedes-Benz Technologies has validated and certified the engine and associated electricals. The ladder-frame chassis of the Force One has been tweaked by its in-house R&D department to take the stresses and loads according to Indian conditions. Handling gurus Lotus engineering with whom Force Motors has a long term technical service agreement has worked on fine tuning the ride with three prototypes shipped to the UK for testing and validation.
Feature list includes chrome grille, projector headlamps, daytime LEDs, electric ORVMs with indicators, 16-inch alloys standard, chrome twin exhaust tip and more. It gets three rows of seats and each row is equipped with bucket seats.
Visually, the Force One is almost as large as the Ford Endeavour meaning great road presence. Force One is available in 4x2 version only and the 4x4 will come in March 2012. ABS variant is expected by end of 2012. Prices? The Force One is available at Rs 10.65 lakh ex-showroom. The company has started new dealership networks for this SUV and for other products to be launched under its personal car division and plans to sell 4000 units in the first year.
OVERDRIVE brings you a full story of the Force One SUV and Force Motors' plans in the September issue. Issue on stands now.
