A new Ford Territory is scheduled to land showrooms in South America, Southeast Asia and South Africa from next month, the famous Australian name now applied to a Chinese-made SUV.
There are no plans to bring the Territory to local showrooms, and the updated model is not related – apart from its name – to the Australian-made Territory sold here between 2004 and 2016.
With sales kicking off in Brazil in July 2025, the ‘Novo Territory’ is a mid-life update of the current model. Ford is looking to capitalise on the SUV’s strong sales, which quadrupled in Brazil over the last 12 months.
“Territory is the model of our portfolio that has grown the most in the last year in Brazil and South America and has room to advance even further,” Antonio Baltar Junior, Ford South America director of sales, marketing and services, said in a statement.
The Territory continues with a single model grade in Brazil, the Titanium Turbo EcoBoost priced at R$215,001 ($60,372) before on-road costs – R$3001 ($800) more than the previous model – with only key details announced so far.
The biggest change is the new squared-off styling with redesigned bumpers front and rear featuring integrated fog lamps, while L-shaped ‘optical’ LED headlights with LED daytime running lights extend into the lower front bumper.
The front also sees a new thinner, black front grille and central but raised Ford blue-oval logo in a similar style to the final Ford Escape SUV – and Fiesta and Focus hatchbacks – dropped from Australian showrooms.
There are also 19-inch silver alloy wheels – bigger than any standard showroom wheel fitted to the previous Australian Territory – and more colour coding for the mirrors and door handles, peppered with chrome elements such as the side window surrounds.
The design follows the late 2024 facelift of the Chinese-market Equator Sport SUV, which is the same vehicle by another name. This model has been on sale since 2018, with the current, second generation launching in 2022.
There are no changes to the key dimensions – with a 4630mm length making it 10mm longer than the previous Escape and 15mm longer than a Toyota RAV4 – and a significant 258mm shorter than the final Australian Territory (4888mm) sold in 2016.
Ford Brazil says the cabin benefits from new finishes, such as new grey and brown colours, with electrically adjustable seats with ‘micro-perforated’ leather upholstery as well as cooling.
A panoramic sunroof, rotary gear shifter and 12.3-inch centre touchscreen with Ford Co-Pilot 360 driver assist tech – including Parking Assist – are also standard, along with a 12.3-inch configurable digital instrument cluster and wireless smartphone charging.
The turbocharged 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine, producing 124kW of power and 250Nm of torque, and the seven-speed dual-clutch automatic carry over unchanged. Only front-wheel drive is available.
The Ford Territory was introduced in Australia in 2004 and is one of the automaker’s key masterstrokes.
The Australian-made SUV was also exported to multiple markets, including South America and South Africa where it introduced the Territory name which remains in showrooms today.
The rear-wheel drive Ford Falcon family sedan/wagon/ute was the basis for the Australian-made Territory.
The large crossover SUV offered a masterclass in exterior design with 178mm of ground clearance and up to seven seats, combined with clever features such as an opening rear windscreen and ‘wet area’, all while using the Falcon’s powerful 4.0-litre in-line six-cylinder petrol engine and offering strong 2300kg towing capability.
From a manufacturing viewpoint, it also allowed parts sharing and development cost efficiencies, with the Territory and Falcon’s corresponding improvements feeding into each other.
It won significant praise from the motoring media at its launch, catching arch-rival Holden flat-footed despite it cleverly using the Falcon-rivalling Commodore for a raft of different body types – yet not a thoroughly executed SUV like Territory.
Holden did offer the Adventra, a jacked-up version of the Commodore wagon with all-wheel drive, but it was short-lived and its sales numbers paled in comparison to those of the Territory.
A turbo-diesel version of the Territory added in 2011 helped improve fuel economy as well as increase its braked towing capacity to 2700kg for all-wheel drive variants.
While Falcon sales tailed off as Ford Australia production wound down, the Territory remained a strong seller for the brand until production ended in October 2016 – easily outlasting its short-lived replacement, the Canadian-built Ford Endura (Ford Edge overseas) sold here between 2018-2020.
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