Ford Australia is shipping the Australian designed and built Ford Territory SUV to Thailand.
“This is an exciting day for everyone here at Ford Australia,” said Bob Graziano, Ford Australia president and CEO. “This is a small, but important deal and will provide an important base on which to potentially build further exports.”
This week 100 high-series all-wheel-drive Territory Titanium TDCis were loaded on to the ‘Gentle Leader’ roll-on, roll-off car and truck carrier at Webb Dock in Melbourne.
“Building on the success of the Territory in Australia and New Zealand, we expect the Territory Titanium model to do well in Thailand,” Graziano said.
Ford received strong interest from prospective Thai customers when it displayed a seven-seater Territory Titanium TDCi at the Bangkok Motor Show in March as a toe-in-the-water exercise to gauge public interest.
“It’s clear Thai customers want the roominess of a seven-seater and the features available in the Territory Titanium,” Graziano said.
Ford Australia engineers have packaged the Territory to Thai specifications – the radio has been modified to tune in 50kHz increments instead of the 100 kHz increments used in Australia and the rear-passenger DVD player has been specifically updated to play Thailand region DVDs.
The six-speed automatic Territory TDCi has already undergone extensive testing to meet the harshest climates, covering 800,000km in some of the world’s toughest locations as well as extreme hot-weather testing in California’s 50-plus-degrees Death Valley and the Australian Outback.
It also boasts high refinement levels and increased crash safety mated to a stylish and contemporary look that aligns with the signature styles of other Ford products.
Ford Australia has previously exported a small number of Territorys to Thailand in 2005 and also sold 2300 Territorys into South Africa.
The award-winning SUV continues to be one of Australia’s best-selling SUVs.
More than 130,000 have been sold since it was launched in June 2004. Its peak sales year was 2005 when 23,454 were sold. Ford currently exports the Territory to New Zealand, where it has sold more than 12,000.
The Territory Titaniums heading to Thailand boast Ford’s acclaimed 2.7-litre V6 TDCi diesel engine, which was added to the range in the SZ model update as part of Ford Australia’s $232 million investment in sustainability, which included development of the 2.0-litre EcoBoost Falcon as well as the introduction of Liquid-Phase injection technology for the Falcon.
This state-of-the-art engine was developed with assistance from the Federal Government’s Green Car Innovation Fund and the Victoria State Government.
The TDCi powerplant is an intercooled single-turbo 60-degree V6. The engine has a Compacted Graphite Iron (CGI) cylinder block, which is an important element for strength as well as offering good NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) properties.
It also has alloy cylinder heads in a double-overhead camshaft design with four valves per cylinder. Induction is via common-rail high-pressure diesel injection with Piezo injectors, including the single variable geometry turbocharger (VGT).
Ford Territory Heads to Thailand
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