By IANS,
Kolkata : Ford India Pvt. Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of global auto major Ford Motors Co., will invest $500 million to set up a small car production facility and an engine manufacturing unit in India by 2010, a senior company official said here Tuesday.
“The investment is part of the company’s capacity expansion plans in India,” Ford India executive director (marketing, sales and service) Nigel E. Wark told reporters at the launch of the new Ford Fiesta 1.6S.
He said the new engine manufacturing facility would be constructed adjacent to the existing plant near Chennai. Both petrol and Ford’s next generation diesel engines would be manufactured here.
Wark said the car plant capacity would be doubled to 2,00,000 annually, while the initial annual production capacity of the engine manufacturing unit is planned for 250,000 units, with the first engines coming off assembly by 2010,” he said.
Ford has been in India since 1907, but received government approval to forge a 50:50 partnership with Mahindra and Mahindra in 1995.
In 1998, Ford got the green signal to increase its stake in the joint venture to 92.18 percent and the company was re-christened as Ford India Pvt. Ltd.
“The company has sold about 65,000 vehicles in India since its launch in 1995. We expect to acquire a good market share with the launch of this new Ford Fiesta range as it would be a fuel efficient car,” Wark said, declining to share any specific details about the sales plans in the coming years.
He said the price of new Ford Fiesta model, available in petrol and turbo-diesel variants, would be reviewed in September.
Ford’s total market share of the B, B+ Mav segment in India was 15.4 percent in 2007. In the last five months, it sold 12,800 vehicles in India.