The SUV that Ford Australia is developing on the T6 (Ranger) platform may wind up being named Everest when it reaches local dealerships.
In markets around the region there's already a Ranger-based SUV (on the earlier platform just recently superseded by the T6 model developed in Australia). This vehicle is marketed in most places as the Everest (pictured), but in India it's known as the Ford Endeavour, since the Everest name wasn't available to Ford in that market.
'Endeavour' could make for a good name in Australia of course, given its association with Captain James Cook's ship for his mission to find the east coast of Australia in 1770.
Ford has a recently-implemented policy of using global names for global designs. The T6 SUV, being a global design (with perhaps regional scope only), is likely to bear just the one name worldwide. According to Ford Australia's Public Affairs Director, Sinead Phipps, nothing's decided yet as far as naming is concerned, but she has intimated the vehicle exists and is under development.
"Well, we have always said that the T6 platform would have more than just one vehicle," she told motoring journalists in India for the New Delhi Auto Expo. "Ranger is the first vehicle off that. The team are working on other things."
Asked whether the T6 SUV would be shown at the Delhi show, Phipps responded thus:
"No, it's still in much earlier development stages."
A test website that recently went live with mocked-up vehicle information was a mistake by web developers employed by Ford Australia, according to Phipps, and no specific conclusions should be made about the T6 SUV. "That site was literally a test... I smacked some heads over that one!"
Phipps further said, however, that the vehicle in question may be marketed as either Everest or Endeavour when it eventually reaches market.
The development of the T6 SUV raises the question of whether Ford Australia needs two similarly-sized SUVs in the same product range, since the T6 SUV would approach the locally-manufactured Territory in size. It only takes a brief sideways glance — at Toyota's Kluger and Prado models — to see that two SUVs can coexist if they appeal to markedly different buyers.
Also in India for the motor show, Joe Hinrichs, President of Ford's Asia/Pacific region, lent his support to the Territory, which has been selling in better than respectable numbers since the introduction of the SZ model with diesel power.
"We just made major investments in the Territory for a reason; we have the intention of that being part of the portfolio for significant years to come," Hinrichs said. "I think eventually, it won't sustain itself, but that's not in the near term.
"We'll continue to make investments in Territory; it's a very important product for us in Australia."
As with the locally-built Falcon then, the Territory's future is unclear, but it's currently well regarded by Ford's international management team for what it has achieved and the business case seems proved for the next few years at least.
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