Ford Launches small car in India, Figo - an upgraded Fusion
US auto giant Ford Motor Co on Wednesday unveiled its first small car for the Indian market, ‘Ford Figo’. The Figo, which is colloquial Italian for ‘cool’, will be manufactured at the company’s Chennai facility and launched in markets by early 2010. The Chennai unit is undergoing a $500-million upgrade as Ford seeks to make India a global production hub for its small cars.
‘The Figo is designed to compete in India’s small car segment, which accounts for more than 70 percent of the market,’ said Ford’s global president and chief executive Alan Mulally, who unveiled the car at a function here.
Ford Motor Company President and CEO Alan Mulally unveiled the much-anticipated new car to be produced in India
The company, however, declined to give specific details like price and engine capacity. ‘Ford is reserving further details about the car till its launch in early 2010,’ said Mulally. Asked about the price range of the Figo, Michael Boneham, Ford India president and managing director, said: ‘It’s going to be very competitive with the current market leader and will offer a tremendous value for our consumers.’
Maintaining that Ford Figo would be ‘a big game changer’ for his company, Boneham said: ‘It will transform our brand into a volume player in India.’ Ford is also planning to double its manufacturing capacity at its Chennai facility to 200,000 units per annum by 2010.
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M Ltd.), a part of the US $6.3 billion Mahindra Group, today announced record breaking domestic auto sales of 27431 units for the month of September 2009, as against 24481 units in September 2008, an increase of 12.1%.
The total UV sales in September 2009 which includes the Scorpio, the XYLO, the Bolero and Pick-Ups stand at 21961 units as against sales of 16059 units in September 2008, which is a growth of 36.8%.
Mahindra’s YTD domestic sales stand at 132522 units in September 2009, as against 116971 units for the same period last year which is an increase of 13.3%.
The company sold a total of 28434 vehicles (Domestic + Exports) in September 2009 as against 25630 vehicles sold in September 2008.
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Comment by sandeep sharma October 14th, 2009 at 4:52 pm