Thaindian News

By Madhuri Dey
Sep 23 (THAINDIAN NEWS) The Ford Motor Company has launched its first small family car, named Figo. The car is all set to be produced in India. This is so because the Ford company wants to expand its manufacturing territories in the South Asian car market, which is growing very fast. This step taken by Ford will help India emerge as the manufacturing hub for small cars.

Figo is all set to be produced at Ford India’s Factory at Chennai, the location being selected for its proximity to the port area. Figo, reported Ford, will be produced and sold in India and exported to other countries.

The car is demonstrated to have four doors and a hatchback. Other features of the car will be announced once it is ready for commercial introduction in the first half of 2010. Figo is inspired from the hatchback technology of Fiesta and this is an attempt on the company’s part “to compete in India’s largest and most important small car market segment.”

The president and Chief executive of Ford, Allan Mulally, said, “Our exciting new Ford Figo shows how serious we are about India.”

A total investment of $500 million has been made by Ford in Chennai. This measure has been taken to increase the manufacturing capacity of the plant in Chennai to 200,000 cars per year, almost the double of what its original was. This investment is also made to install new modern and advanced technologies in the plant for better and faster production of cars.

The president and managing director of Ford India, Michael Boneham, says, “We believe Ford Figo is a big game-changer for Ford that will help transform our brand into a volume player in India.”