In it move to roll out Fiesta hatchback (Ford’s small car for india), Ford plans to invest $500 million in india. Few days back we reported you Ford plans to bring Fiesta hatchback to India and Ford is planning to construct an engine plant near chennai. The engine plant is the Ford’s first engine plant with diesel engine production capability outside Europe. However, Ford India will continue sourcing petrol engines and transmissions from Hindustan Motors. With the new engine plant in place, Hindustan Motors would meet the increased requirement for transmissions. Ford India will source transmissions from them for its engines meant for the domestic market. In the first phase a diesel engine assembly plant with an initial annual capacity of 50,000 units will roll out engines to be used in the locally made Fiesta and Fusion by April 2008. Producing engine in India will help Ford to price its products competitively especially the Fiesta sedan prices will be slashed.
Ford which has been considering a small car for india finally prepared a blueprint to produce the small car.Production of the small car is will commence within two years, and this will increase the overall annual production of Ford India to 2lakh units by 2010. Ford remains tight lipped on its plans, it refused to divulge the engine capacity or the price of the small car. “It will be smaller than the Fusion, which is already classified as a small car by Indian norms,” Arvind Mathew, president and MD of Ford India said. “The new investment increases Ford’s total financial commitment in India to more than $875 million, and underscores its plan to elevate India as one of the strategic production hubs for small cars in the company’s Asia-Pacific and Africa region. India is a priority market for Ford,” he added.