• All-new five-seat Ford Tourneo Connect and seven-seat Grand Tourneo Connect that launch late this year offer best-in-class flexibility
• Grand Tourneo Connect offers fold-flat rear seating and widest dual sliding side doors in class; has sliding third-row seats; can carry bulky items up to 3 metres long
• Both models offer highly-flexible seating and multiple stowage areas including a full-width overhead shelf and aircraft-style overhead lockers
• Ford engineers create and analyse 3-D virtual reality projections to refine tailgate opening, improve visibility and even reduce interior reflections
The all-new five-seat Ford Tourneo Connect and seven-seat Grand Tourneo Connect people movers that launch late this year will offer customers best-in-class family flexibility and comfort.
The Grand Tourneo Connect breaks new ground in its segment by offering unique-in-class rear seating, which folds quickly and easily into a flat, unobstructed luggage platform; provides unrivalled access to the rear with the widest dual sliding side doors in the class; and is equipped with a folding front passenger seat that enables it to carry items up to 3 metres long.
Both vehicles offer outstanding versatility for active families with highly-flexible seating and multiple stowage areas including a full-width overhead shelf in the front compartment and aircraft-style overhead lockers above the rear seats and luggage area.
“The new Tourneo Connect is all about smart space – helping customers squeeze the most out of every-day motoring with an interior which is clever, flexible and very roomy,” said Stephen Lesh, Tourneo Connect chief program engineer, Ford of Europe.
The Grand Tourneo Connect offers flexible seating for seven in three rows, with the third row sliding fore/aft to allow customers the choice of extra leg room or more space for belongings. The car has 2,620 litres of luggage space with the two rear seat rows folded down, and the third-row seats incorporate an integral floor cover which can be expanded to provide a continuous flat load platform for the rear compartment.
The five-seat Tourneo Connect – which also features dual sliding rear doors – offers best-in-class first-row leg room and head room, and best-in-class leg room and knee room in the second row. Clever 60/40 split rear seats can be folded flat and tumbled forward, or removed completely to provide 2,410 litres of luggage space behind the front seats.
For smaller items, both models provide a host of different stowage areas including a clever hidden box above the instrument cluster with a 12V socket suitable for mobile phones or music players, a large lockable glovebox, practical front door bins capable of holding 1.5-litre bottles, spacious centre consoles with cupholders, and a hidden floor compartment in the second-row footwell. A full glass panoramic roof can also be specified.
Ford developed and tested many of the key features of both vehicles using 3-D virtual reality prototypes at its Computer Automated Virtual Environment (3-D CAVE), in Cologne, Germany. Engineers wore 3-D glasses and sat in a prototype car interior to test and refine the opening height of the rear tailgate; improve visibility for the driver and rear passengers; and even reduce the reflections from interior parts in the windscreen and side glass.
“We still rely on the know-how and imagination of our engineers to bring smart new designs to life, but this sophisticated tool enables them to develop the car in a digital world and then actually get in it and experience it as a customer would,” Lesh added.
The all-new Tourneo Connect adds to Ford’s new generation of Tourneo people movers for Europe and offers active families an attractive and affordable new package with outstanding space and versatility, along with the latest Ford passenger car technologies – including the multi-award-winning 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine, Active City Stop and Ford SNYC.
