Ford India to focus on diesel cars

With petrol prices spiralling upward, Ford India will largely focus on diesel-run cars for future launches.

"Petrol prices are becoming high and this has swung the proportion of cars sold in favour of diesel models," Ford India Executive Director Nigel Wark told reporters in reply to a question here today.

Wark said Ford India had lined up eight product launches by the middle of the decade.

"The upcoming products will be mainly on the diesel platform. This has created a lot of stress to manufacture diesel cars," he said.

Clocking a sales figure of 83,000 units in 2010, the company has already crossed sales of 58,000 units so far.

"This year we will be touching the one lakh-mark," he said.

Wark said Ford India was aiming to expand at a faster pace than the industry, which was growing at 17 per cent.

Ford's new small car was contributing to the company's sales in a major way.

The company is exporting the Figo to 50 countries, he said.