Ford ramps up diesel engine production, cuts waiting period

Maraimalai Nagar, which was producing 2.5 lakh units, will now produce 3.3 lakh

Ford India today announced expansion of its facility here to produce 3.30 lakh engines per annum and said it would bring down the waiting period for diesel powered vehicles to three weeks.

The plant at Maraimalai Nagar near here was earlier producing 2.50 lakh units and the 36% increase in capacity is part of a $72 million expansion the company had announced last year.

With the expansion, the waiting period for diesel powered cars, which was at present three months, would come down to three weeks, Ford India President and Managing Director Michael Boneham said after unveiling the company's 400,000th engine from the plant which produces two lakh vehicles annually.

Observing that the customer demand for diesel engine powered vehicles has gone up substantially over the last few months due to the high petrol prices, Boneham said the ratio of the cars that were sold was 80 per cent diesel engine cars and 20 per cent petrol powered vehicles.

"Due to the increasing demand there has been waiting period for two to three months for diesel cars.. Now it will come down to two to three weeks...

"In 2011, we announced we will make an investment of $72 million (to expand) by 80,000 units. We are celebrating our 400,000th engines out of our engine facility..." he told reporters here.

According to Boneham, 40 per cent of the engines produced are exported to places like Asia Pacific and South African markets. He said the powertrain facility produces 17 variants of the engines including six diesel engines.

On their future plans, he said they are 'well on track' for launching their products as per their plan to have eight new products by 2015. Ford India plans to have eight new products by 2015.