In a time span of another five years, Ford India would have delivered 8 vehicles under its platform, said its President for Asia Pacific and Africa. The company has devised some huge plans for the region and will be implemented during the middle of this decade, he added. However, the industry analysts view the move as a penetration into the multi-purpose vehicles and pick ups, which witness growing stint for quite some time. Ford’s move is akin to the American General Motors on a tie-up with SAIC of China. Ford believes in its quality and value based marketing as a basis for the launch of these 8 vehicles. He assured that the company will all set to meet the demands and challenges of the market in terms of quality and quantity. The suppliers will be relieved with ease and complexity in terms of vehicles, he mentioned further. He made it clear that in another two years,
70% of the company’s vehicles would come off its 15 core platforms spread in different brands.
The motif is to make the suppliers gain by way of moving further into range of vehicles, he explained. Ford has been concentrating on the APA region comprising Australia, India, China, South Africa and Thailand, and there is an anticipation of the sale doubling- from 16 million units in the last year- to 35 million by 2018. Of these, he said, the APA would contribute 70%, given the current sale figure of 7000 monthly units. Ford’s move is seen as a great retrieve from the dry platform so far has been in the air. The MD of Ford India said that the company is eyeing on new export avenues, numbering about 50, where Figo [images] will be launched. The countries include West Asia, North Africa and Mexico, extending from the existing single export market of South Africa.