Sept. 24 – American company Ford Motor Co., has now entered India’s booming auto market by launching its first Indian-made small car, the Figo.
The new model is set to be exported to the rest of the Asia-Pacific region to push global sales, and Ford has tapped Chennai to be its global production hub for such cars in the region.
“We expect the small car segment will double in the next 10 years,” Chief Executive Alan Mulally said during the launch of the Figo in New Delhi. “When you look at vehicle size, about 60 percent of the vehicles worldwide would be smaller vehicles like the new vehicle here.”
The four-door hatchback Figo, which means cool in colloquial Italian, borrows much of its technology from another model the Ford Fiesta, also sold in the Indian market.
Ford did not say how much the new Figos would cost, only saying that it will not directly compete with the price of the US$2,000 Tata Nano. Auto sales in India are booming with 73 percent of those cars sold being small cars with an engine capacity of 0.8 liters to 1.6 liters. The demand is only expected to increase to 3.0 million cars by 2016 says The Wall Street Journal.
Ford has invested US$500 million in its Chennai plant to boost capacity to 200,000 units a year. Other auto companies like GM, Toyota, Honda Volkswagen and Nissan also have plans to invest more in the Indian market through its small car market currently led by Suzuki and Hyundai.
