The Indian market prospective has always been on top for the car manufacturers. They have always been keen on expanding their network in the Indian market after China and US. Running in the same lane, Ford India is also planning to brand India as its one of the largest exporting hubs for its several models. And to do that company is going to initiate the production at its Sanand plant situated in Gujarat by 2014. According to the words from President and Managing director of Ford India, Joginder Singh with the start of this new plant, the Ford’s total outlay in the India will reach to about $2 billion out of which about $1 billion will be arriving just from Gujarat plant.
Speaking on the issue, Mr. Singh also told that everything is going according to the plan and currently about 4000 workers are working at Sanand’s ground. The project is going as per the expectation and the plant will be hiring facilities for engine manufacturing, body paint, stamping and assembly operations for the vehicles. The plant at the Chennai along with the newly developed plant at Sanand will have a joint capacity of about 3 million units. The production capacity will be increased up to 5 million by mid of the decade and the same will be increased to about 9 million by the year 2020. Ford has already made about 10,000 job opportunities in the Chennai plant and after the start of the Sanand Plant about 5,000 more jobs will be created.
When the product launch and diversification is concerned, Ford is aiming to bring about 8 new models by the mid of the decade. Moreover, Ford is also planning to increase its dealership from the current 125 to 205 by the end of next year and up to 500 by the mid of the decade. Mr. Singh further said that instead of waiting for the customers Ford itself will go to them. Ford is thinking about expanding its presence to the tier 2 and tier 3 cities to gather large customer exposure, rather than just restricting itself to metro cities. With this decision Ford is hoping to gather large customer base.
While commenting on the Diesel vehicle subsidy Mr. Singh said that the diesel vehicle sale figure among the total sale is rising gradually so, instead of putting tax on the diesel vehicles government should some with some measures to provide subsides on them.
In view of the Ford’s expectation from the Global sale figures, Mr. Singh said that the company sold about 5.3 million vehicles in 2010 and company is now hoping to increase these numbers to about 8 million units by 2015. The Asia Pacific region comprises of about 70 percent of the total sales and company claimed to sell one out of six cars in this area by 2020.
