After a hiatus, Ford India is making a comeback with its small car Figo, which will be placed in the highly competitive B segment. With its Fusion out of the market, the company will now aggressively try to get a grip in the hatchback segment.
Michael Boneham, president and managing director, Ford India, shares with DNA Rishi how India will not only be the export hub for Figo, but also supply engines to the Asia-Pacific region. With an investment of $500 million for India, the company will try to be present across product categories with more global products coming into India. Excerpts:
What is the status of the Ford Fusion?
We stopped production of the Fusion four weeks ago. It was a great car for us, but the time had come for the car to go. However, with the Figo, which is significantly lower priced than Fusion, we will get exposure to a much broader base.
Ford has been rather restrictive in its portfolio, unlike GM, Toyota etc. Can we expect Ford to be a player offering products across the portfolio?
Ford is going to be aggressive, the car market is set to grow double digit, if not beyond. It will at least grow by 10-20%, which gives everyone room to grow. Our strategy is to launch new cars in India every 12-18 months; the segment will be determined by the consumer demand. We can enter segments reasonably quickly as we have a stable of products ready. Due to our global product strategy, our vehicles are designed keeping all the countries in mind.
Can we see any platform solely developed for India?
No, that will not happen. We will use our global platforms, with only the top heads different for the Indian market. That gives you flexibility as you have your platform at the highest cost of development. You can take the example of the European Fiesta, which we launched in China and other Asean countries and will be launching it in US; the car looks the same everywhere.
Can we expect the Fiesta to come to India?
There is no reason why it shouldn’t, but currently we have not taken any decision on that.
Can we see any hatchbacks coming out of the Fiesta platform or a sedan from the Figo platform?
No decision has been made on this yet, but we do have the flexibility to build them for each of those platforms.
What are your plans with respect to engine exports?
India is going to be a low engine displacement (for small cars) source for the Asean region. The Figo will be exported to South Africa, the engine that goes there is a 1.4 Duratec petrol engine (In India, we have the 1.2 litre petrol engine), so that engine will be produced out of the Chennai facility. We are doing engines for other markets as well, which will be a 1.6 litre engine. Our powertrain capacity, when fully ramped up, will produce 2.5 lakh engines and a substantial portion of it will be for exports.
Any plans for third-party selling of engines?
No, we are not looking at that as our own consumption is very high.
Comments