Fords Small-Car Plan Gains-Ground

John Fink, vice-president, sales and marketing, said the company has completed a study for bringing a small car into the Indian market. He was, however, tightlipped on when Ford would bring in a small car. "We feel that we would need to develop a small car for India and can't bring in an existing Ford model," Fink said.

Fink also mentioned that the company plans to export CKD kits of Ford Ikon from October this year. He, however, did not disclose the countries to which FIL would export.

FIL plans to increase its dealer base from 44 to 66 dealerships across the country by the end of this calendar year. "With 66 dealerships, we would be present in 59 cities (as against 39 at present) across the country," Fink said.

 

Speaking on the opportunities for import of completely built units (CBUs) that would arise after April 1, 2001, Fink said that Ford finds the Rs 9 lakh-above segment attractive. "There are great opportunities in the sports utility vehicle segment and in the luxury segment," Fink said.

Ford India is so far leading in the mid-segment with Ikon having sold 11,109 units between January and July 2000. FIL's target for this calendar year is to sell 24,000 units and thereby capturing 30 per cent of the market in the mid-segment, which the company expects to be around 80,000 cars during this calendar year.

FIL has so far put in Rs 1,700 crore in the manufacturing facility near Chennai. The plant, however, does not manufacture engines. Answering a query on when FIL plans to manufacture engines in India, Fink said, "There are no such plans at the moment." Ford's Chennai plant has an annual capacity of producing 1,00,000 cars per annum and the company is utilising only a quarter of that at the moment. "The critical mass is not there yet. Therefore, investing further in order to manufacture engines here is not a viable proposition," Fink said.

He, however, said that as per the company's projections, FIL should break-even after two years. FIL is a joint venture between Ford Motor Company of the US and Mahindra and Mahindra, where the former has an 85 per cent equity stake and the latter has a 15 per cent stake.

ENDS