Ford, which has been enjoying a good stint in the Indian car market with its models, has taken a stand to abandon India specific cars. Rather, it is known, the company will now focus more on the global market like Europe and South America. The company’s President and MD said the cars produced hereinafter will be based on the global standards made in tune with the specifications of India and the world. India has become a hub for Ford’s global activities, whereby it will export cars built with fuel efficiency in diesel and petrol versions. Therefore no sort of exclusiveness for Indian market, he stressed. The move is to feed the hunger of world customers who need cars of global standards rather than the localized ones, he remarked. To start with, Figo will be exported soon to 50 countries.
To meet the demand for such moves, the company has allocated funds for expansion, particularly in its Chennai plant. The facility will be strengthened to yield 2 lakh units from the current 1 lakh units. There will be five different derivatives to take up this venture of assembly line, body shop, trimming the size of the cars. Ford has learnt some good deeds from its ally Mazda on production lines, which are exploited in the production of Chennai plant. Another new from Ford will come in the form of an automatic version of SUV 4 X 2 Endeavor @Rs18 lakhs. The car has got good numbers for Ford, a sale of 350 units per
month, surpassing the previous year’s by 70%. Ford has slated its expansion for the coming decade, with 8 new launches before 2015 which will fit in the major models available in the market. For this the workforce has also been increased to 1000 along with the equally increased dealers to 200 from the current 160.