Ford wants Puma to lure Mini buyers, challenge Europe’s small SUV leaders

Ford aims to pull customers away from BMW Group’s premium Mini brand with the new Puma, the company’s first small SUV developed specifically for European buyers.

The Puma will sit between the EcoSport small SUV and the Kuga compact SUV, enabling the U.S. automaker to challenge leaders in fast-growing small SUV sector such as the Renault Captur and Peugeot 2008.

Ford is banking on the Puma’s striking design, competitive driving dynamics, class-unique technology and ample interior space to persuade customers who would not normally choose a volume brand.

“The whole car is meant to attract people from premium brands. Mini is the key one,” Sigurd Limbach, Ford of Europe's vehicle line director for small cars, told Automotive News Europe.

Limbach referenced the first-generation S-Max minivan as inspiration for what Ford wants to replicate with the Puma.

“It was a mega success because [when it debuted in 2006] it was in a segment that wasn’t there [a sporty minivan],” he said. “It had a lot of space, was stylish and people loved it. This [the Puma] is also a stylish car with a lot of space but in a different decade.”

The Puma will have its auto show at the Frankfurt auto show in September and will go on sale in Europe in January.

The Puma, which will not be sold in the U.S., is based on an adapted version of Ford’s B2 small-car platform shared with the Fiesta but stretched lengthwise and widthwise to allow designers to create a more muscular design and to increase interior room.

The Puma measures 4186mm end-to-end, which is longer than the 4095mm EcoSport but shorter than the new Peugeot 2008 at 4300mm and the Opel Crossland X at 4212mm.

Ford claims the Puma’s 456-liter trunk space is best in class. The flexible storage space is partitioned with a moveable floor that can be fitted into three separate positions, including raised up to reveal an 80-liter glass fiber box that’s deep enough to allow items such as child's stroller to be stored upright in the trunk. The box also has a plug in the floor to allow it to be power-washed if used to store muddy items.

The Puma will initially be offered with three versions of Ford’s 1.0-liter three-cylinder turbocharged gasoline engine, two of which will include a 48-volt mild-hybrid system that delivers extra power at lower revs from an integrated belt-driven starter-generator.

Ford will not offer a plug-in hybrid to match Renault with its forthcoming Captur or a full-electric model to rival the upcoming Peugeot e-2008 or the current Hyundai Kona EV.

Ford will expand the Puma range in May 2020 to include a 1.5-liter diesel that will meet Euro 6d emissions requirements.

The mild-hybrid Puma with 123 hp will emit 124 grams of CO2 per kilometer while the non-hybrid version with the same power emits from 131g/km of CO2, both measured on the WLTP cycle.

The 153-hp hybrid version produces 127g/km of CO2. Ford said the advantages of the hybrid version over the standard car will include more torque at low revs for better in-gear acceleration.

No prices for the models have been released.

Customers will need to be educated as to the benefits of the more expensive hybrid, given the relatively small improvement to the Puma’s fuel economy.

“I’m not saying it’s a challenge, but it’s something we need to make apparent to the non-techie customer,” Limbach said.

Ford will be hoping customers prefer hybrid versions as the deadline to meet tougher average CO2 targets in 2020 and 2021 approaches.

The design of the Puma was intended to bridge the gap between more polarizing models in the small SUV class such as the Nissan Juke and more upright, conservative models.

“We wanted to stand out and be compelling and attractive, but not be a weird science project,” George Saridakis, head of interior and external design for Ford of Europe, said.

He described the profile of the car as an “anti-wedge” that keeps a simpler design compared to some models with more complex surface details.

“We don’t rely on a tensioned, crisp line front to rear to convey the dynamism of the car, we’re using the wheel arches and their positioning of the muscles to convey that,” he said.

Technology in the car includes an electric tailgate, which Ford claims is the first in its sector. It also has massage seats as standard in some models, as well as a digital instrument cluster.

Active safety equipment in the model includes adaptive cruise control that can brake the car to a stop in a traffic jam and will automatically restart if the stop time is less than three seconds.

The Puma is also available with blind spot warning, active park assist, and a rear camera that projects an image onto the dashboard screen.

The car’s lane-keeping system includes a function that detects if the car is drifting onto a road surface other than pavement, such as grass, and helps steer it back onto the roadway.

The Puma will help take Ford’s SUV share of its passenger car sales in Europe to almost 50 percent, up from 27 percent last year, Ford of Europe president Stuart Rowley told Automotive News Europe in April. “SUVs are critical to us. They’re a growing segment and you enjoy better margins in that segment,” Rowley said.

Ford chose to launch a second vehicle in the small SUV segment in response to rising demand. “It’s such a large segment. They’re becoming such a large part of the industry you’re not going to serve all the customer desires with just one product offering,” Rowley said. “Some people want a more rugged car, other people want something more refined.”

The Puma will go into production at Ford’s  plant in Craiova, Romania, alongside the EcoSport later this year. It revives a nameplate Ford last used on a Fiesta-based coupe that ended production in 2002.