Ford India has planned three major vehicle launches in the coming months as production from its new factory in Sanand, Gujarat gets going. Speaking to the media while showcasing the first of these new products, the Figo Aspire, a new ‘compact sedan’, that is a car below four meters in length, Nigel Harris , the Managing Director of Ford India sounded optimistic of the carmakers new products.
Ford, which was one of the first foreign carmakers to enter India after entry rules were relaxed, has found the going tough in the country until recently. It was only the introduction of their crossover EcoSport two years ago that really sped up sales. Ford’s outgoing Chief Executive Alan Mulally, however, has long been an outspoken believer in India and invested heavily in India. This includes nearly $1 billion investment in the new factory at Sanand with an annual capacity of over 240,000 cars and 400,000 engines. Harris pointed out that this factory has over 430 robots on the shop floor which promise extremely high levels of quality.
Harris said that these strong investments were because Ford continues to believe in India’s potential and believed that India would be the world’s third largest car market by volume after China and the United States. The Figo Aspire aims to take on the Maruti Dzire, which sells over 15,000 units every month as well as the more recent Honda Amaze and Hyundai Xcent with combined sales of around 10,000 units per month. The compact sedan segment is popular with buyers because Indian excise rules put cars under 4000mm in length in a lower excise category.
Ford India will also launch the second-generation variants of its Figo hatchback and Endeavor SUV also in the coming few months. Harris also mentioned that Ford India has drastically cut out ownership costs with greater localisation, the reworked 1.2 litre petrol and 1.5 litre diesel engines on the Figo Aspire are being made in Sanand as against imports in the past. He also said that Ford was working hard to ensure that service and repair costs for their cars were “competitive”, and Ford India was achieving this through selling authorised spare parts in the open market as well as increased availability of various sub-assemblies.