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Todd Hallenbeck25 Mar 2015
NEWS

Ford Everest: Full details

The design and engineering story behind Ford's all-new Australian-developed Prado rival

Ford Asia-Pacific rolled out the all-new Everest at yesterday's Bangkok International Motor Show opening in what was the most significant reveal Ford will stage this year.

Developed in Australia, sourced from Thailand and built alongside the Ranger ute on which it's based, the all-new seven-seat off-road SUV goes on sale here by September — exactly a year before Ford Australia is schedule to cease manufacturing the Territory (and Falcon).

Everest differs from Territory in many ways; most significantly the Everest has permanent four-wheel drive system (in Australian spec), low-range transfer case and offers as much as 225mm ground clearance.

With a 29-degree approach angle and 25-degree departure angle, the Everest travels roads and rough terrain that simply stopped Territory, making it a direct rival for Toyota's top-selling Prado 4x4, although the Japanese brand will also release its all-new, HiLux-based Fortuner here within the next year.

Everest’s mechanical architecture is based on the Ranger, with which it also shares its 3.2-litre inline five-cylinder turbo-diesel powertrain, while the Territory borrows heavily from the Falcon sedan.

So it might not offer Australians the refinement and overall sedan-like driving qualities and performance of the Territory, but the Everest brings more diesel power (147kW) and torque (470Nm) than the Territory’s 2.7-litre V6 turbo-diesel.

A rear-wheel drive Everest variant exists, but Ford has yet to confirm it for Australia. Either way, it will give Ford Australia a purposeful 4WD SUV, but we continue to believe that Ford will also launch a sedan based large SUV — most likely Edge — to accompany EcoSport, Kuga and Everest in showrooms.

The Edge is built on Ford’s (Mondeo based) C/D medium/large passenger car platform and will give Australian buyers car-like civility and dynamics, with petrol engines likely to be a 2.0-litre four-cylinder or a 2.7-litre V6, both turbocharged.

The production Everest revealed yesterday very closely follows the design set by the Everest concept revealed more than 18 months ago in Sydney.

The all-new Everest is entirely re-engineered and shares nothing with previous generation Everest sold in Southeast Asia, India and African markets. This new Everest does share front sheet metal with the Ranger, which also donates some elements of its truck-style body-on-frame design, but the chassis structure is unique.

A five-link with central Watts link and coil spring rear suspension replaces leaf springs as engineers looked to improve Everest’s ride quality and dynamics. Improving ride, comfort and occupant safety to a level acceptable for Australian buyers presented challenges for the engineering team.

“We did a huge amount of benchmarking on the program, probably more than any program I’ve experienced for any Ford vehicle,” said Ian Foston, global chief program engineer for Ranger and Everest. Prior to joining Ford, Foston clocked 18 years with Land Rover. The man knows body-on-chassis architecture.

“On Everest, this is the first program where we’ve gone global on the suspension damper and spring settings. The reason being is we believe we’ve achieved a very good balance. What we tried to do is focus on what customers wanted, and then we asked how do we deliver what they want?” he said.

Foston claims Everest suspension shares nothing with Ranger. He then emphasises: “We’ve got a completely different frame. It is primarily a ground-up development. There are some Ranger components but very few.”

He claims the engineering goal was to make Everest into a sophisticated contemporary product which wasn’t an easy task considering the previous-generation Everest was basically an SUV body over a Ranger chassis, suspension and drivetrain.

Unique to this segment and an achievement by the engineering team is the Everest’s seven-seat configuration. The third and second rows fold into a flat cargo area. Seat and occupant packaging is impressive considering the body-on-chassis architecture is far more space-consuming than a monocoque structure.

“You’ll notice in the car we’ve engineered the seats so the third row is the thinnest seats we do in the Ford Motor Company. The second row is very much engineered to give the most space inside the car to the passengers,” explains Foston.

All-wheel drive – Ford claims permanent 4WD – is achieved via a torque on demand transfer case that detects wheels speed with clutches controlling torque split front to rear. Drive is biased to the rear, approximately 90-95 per cent during highway cruising.

When asked about occupant safety and impact protection, Foston responded quite abruptly “Do you really want to ask that question?", before he eventually replied: "We performed a huge number of computer aided engineering (CAE) impact simulations in Australia. We then performed actual impact verification in the United States."

A body-on-chassis vehicle responds quite differently during an impact than a monocoque structure, but the Everest is expected to achieve the same maximum five-star safety rating as the Ranger.

On first impressions, Everest’s exterior design is quite pleasing, and as you begin to look closely you’ll notice an immense amount of time has been invested in the details. The thin chrome surrounds framing the switchgear, the stitching and the smooth blending of textures and materials are all well done.

“You deliver the ruggedness and toughness in the architecture, and then you delivery the level of premiumness and sophistication in the details,” says David Dewitt, Ford Asia Pacific design team leader for Everest and Ranger. Both vehicles were designed in Ford Australia’s studio.

The instrument panel and touch-screen design closely follow Ford’s global interior design layout and appear to be derivatives of the North American Edge’s interior.

Dewitt delves briefly into the design philosophy of Everest: “I understand the characteristics Australians want in an SUV, but there’s so much more to an SUV these days than off-road driving and lifestyle.

"You see people towing caravans and people want power. I personally try to look at what I want in an SUV. It makes it easier as a designer when you can understand what the requirements are that you’re trying to communicate in the design.”

What is quite clearly understood by the design of the rear side glass and daylight openings is that Everest has moved far beyond being a Ranger SUV derivative.

“It was important to design Ranger and Everest specific to the function of each vehicle. When we developed the design brief for Everest, part of that brief was to create a sleek and stylish silhouette. That was one thing we really went after on that vehicle,” said Dewitt.

And what does Ford’s global design director Murray Callum think of Everest? “He loves it,” says Dewitt.

Australian Everest pricing won't be announced until later this year, but Ford Thailand has announced a pricetag of 1.459million baht ($A56,890) for the Everest Platinum, increasing to 1.599 million baht ($A62,340) for the Everest+ flagship.

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Written byTodd Hallenbeck
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