Dispatches Do Brasil: New Ford Ka

Marcelo de Vasconcellos
by Marcelo de Vasconcellos

Spy photos in Germany of a heavily camouflaged small Ford have set the Brazilian blogosphere on fire. The initial photos were published by a Malaysian site that didn’t really know what they were seeing. It turns out that it’s actually the new Ford Ka, a very important car for our market ( and the car I currently drive).

Smaller than the Fiesta, the new car is set to debut in 2014 in Brazil. Apparently, though the car has in its aim mostly emerging markets like Brazil and India, development is being done by Ford Europe. Following on the footsteps of VW’s recently released Fox, the Ka will also sport a 3 cylinder engine with 1000 cc. A simplified version of Ford’s Ecoboost engine, it will not offer direct injection and will go sans turbo. In other words, it’s not really an Ecoboost. Nonetheless, it’ll have an aluminum block and 4 valves per cylinder, all of which will help it reach a very healthy output of around 80 horses, a figure that is competitive with many 1.4L engines in some Brazilian cars.

This time around, the Ka will get 4 doors as well as Ford’s attractive new family face. Being developed by Ford Europe, it’ll undoubtedly have very good handling characteristics and should be better than the current European Ka, which is in fact built by Fiat and is based on the 500 with a different, non-retro shell. The Brazilian one market version is even older, dating back to the last century. As always, at least in Brazil, pricing will be of the utmost importance, but it does look like Ford has a product that will rock the global subcompact market.

Marcelo de Vasconcellos
Marcelo de Vasconcellos

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  • Beerboy12 Beerboy12 on Jul 12, 2013

    Considering GM sells the Spark here in the US... I wonder if Ford would bring it here as competition?

  • SoCalMikester SoCalMikester on Jul 12, 2013

    Kinda reminds me of a Cygnet, for some reason...

  • Big Al from Oz Big Al from Oz on Jul 12, 2013

    I wonder if Brazil will get the Escort out of China as well in the future?

    • Marcelo de Vasconcellos Marcelo de Vasconcellos on Jul 12, 2013

      I'm thinking it's gonna be built here. At least 2 big car plants here in Brazil, at least another one in Argentina. Trade barriers rule. The car must be built here.

  • Felis Concolor Felis Concolor on Jul 13, 2013

    No turbo version? Bummer; that would be a true terror among city cars. For those moments when you absolutely, positively, MUST get to the other side of the parking lot right now. They could offer that option and call it the Super Ka.

    • Marcelo de Vasconcellos Marcelo de Vasconcellos on Jul 13, 2013

      I'm pretty sure in Europe they'll get all the goodies. Part of the appeal of the first Ka were the special versions, like the not so imaginatively named Sportka, the convertible Strretka and even the Puma were all related. It just seems that in Brazil we'll be stuck with the detuned versions.

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