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Ford to ride Indian roads for acceleration: Mulally

Sunday, 14 March 2010

15 March 2010;timesofindia.indiatimes.com:Pankaj Doval:NEW DELHI: Ford boss Alan Mulally is on a high, after putting back the auto major on a strong wicket. For the first time over a decade, Ford has overtaken GM in monthly (February) sales in the US. It also staved off a government bailout, while rivals GM and Chrysler struggled. With the company firmly saddled in various key markets, Mulally has now trained his eyes on India, a market he believes will grow rapidly and help Ford retain its strength in the coming years. Mulally, who took charge more than three years ago after joining from Boeing, is now focusing heavily on the Asia-Pacific region that he expects to grow at double the pace of the other regions like American and European markets, which are limping back to recovery. “India is a key market in the Asia-Pacific region and we are going to accelerate introduction of more and more cars in India. we are a little slower than competition in developing Asia-Pacific. But now we are aggressively launching vehicles and want to accelerate our business here,” Mulally said. The company’s aggressive stance in India is evident from pricing of compact car Figo at Rs 3.49 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). Mulally termed the Figo as a “dynamite” vehicle for Ford India and said the company will look at adding more such products. “Clearly, we have come later to the small car market in India than competitors. But now we are going to start, to continuously accelerate, and introduce more and more vehicles. It’s a great market with great customers. You will see us accelerate our progress every year.” He said the compact car segment and less expensive sedans would be one of the key areas for the company in India. “Clearly, the B (compact) and C (entry-level sedans) size makes more sense for us to increase our presence here.” Speaking about competition from established brands like Maruti, Hyundai and Tata, who are strong on product-costing front, Mulally said, “we are absolutely going to be competitive on price, in addition to quality, fuel efficiency, safety and smart design... our plan is to get in one ‘dynamite’ vehicle at a time. Figo is one such product.” On the global auto industry, he said, “The numbers are coming back. In the US, our guidance for industry sale is about 11.5-12.5 million vehicles. I would say that the comeback is little bit slower than recoveries from past recession just because we have been so deep within the recession.” He also expressed optimism on European markets. “The demand was relatively high last year due to scrappage schemes. But the interesting thing is pent up demand, which can be seen from the first couple of months that have been relatively high. We are cautiously optimistic that Europe will also grow and can touch around 15 million units on an annualised basis.” Mulally said demand in the auto industry will closely mirror the economic growth in most markets. “It’s going to be a few years before it gets back to the highs,” he said.