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Ford in top gear with small entry

Tuesday, 16 February 2010

17 Feb 2010;dailypioneer.com:Rakesh Bihari Jha:New Delhi: US car maker Ford, which is all set to join volume segment in India with its small car ‘Figo’, will phase out its hatchback ‘Fusion’. “We will discontinue the Fusion...The car was anyway giving us relatively small volumes,” said Ford India Managing Director and President Michael Boneham, adding, “the company will focus on small car Figo, which will be launched in March.” In a very bold move, Ford on Tuesday opened 28 dealerships across 24 cities in the country, as it is getting fully prepared to cope up with the anticipated high demand of its small car Figo. The Figo will feature a standard 1.2-litre engine and will be available in the 1.4-litre diesel engine as well. New facilities have been opened in New Delhi, Sangrur, Haldwani and Gwalior in the North; Durgapur, Dhanbad and Guwahati in the East; Hyderabad, Chennai, Warangal, Vellore, Salem, Vijayawada and Malappuram in the South; and Bilaspur and Mehsana in the Western region. “We will increase our network further by 15-20 per cent this year and we have an aggressive growth strategy in Tier II and III cities,” Boneham said. Ahead of the launch, Ford has added new dealers to take the total to 164, across 97 cities. “With the openings today, 40 per cent of our dealers are now in secondary markets and we will further increase it,” he added. The commercial production of Figo has started at the Ford’s Chennai plant from February 5. The plant has a capacity to produce 2,00,000 units annually. The Chennai facility will produce both petrol and diesel engines in a flexible assembly line, along with four cylinder engines with capacities varying up to 1.6-litre for export. When asked about what is the outlook for the company this year, he said: “We will have significant growth this year also and the company hopes to grow in the range of 15-20 per cent.”