Bangalore: Ford India will invest $500 million by 2010 for
expansion of its Chennai Plant, Company Vice President (Marketing,
Sales and Service) Scott McCormack said Wednesday. Speaking to newsmen here, he said the
expansion included production of the yet to be named small car.
After expansion, production capacity would touch 2.5 lakh cars from the present one lakh.
The company had also taken up upgrading of both petrol and diesel engines used in its cars.
Declining to give details about proposed small car, he said, ''''I cannot give you any details about our small car or its likely price. However, it will be launched by 2010 as promised earlier.''''
To a question, he said due to sluggish global
market, sales this year may not be as expected but it will not be lower than last year.
''''Due to global trend, increase in interest rates, turmoil in stock market and other factors, sales may be lower this year. But it is not alarming as we are confident of maintaining the level,'''' he said. He said Ford''s presence in South and Western parts of the country was good and it was making all out efforts to ''conquer'' Northern market by improving service support.
Ford India was working towards integration of all stakeholders to avoid traffic congestion during peak hours by suggesting alternative methods.
This involved city transport system, IT companies and other parties concerned so that traffic congestion can be avoided.
McCormack claimed the Ford Fiesta diesel model had proved it can give 33.4 km per litre under real road conditions. This had been achieved by covering 996.7 km from Bangalore to Mumbai in less than 24 hours using only 29.8 litre of the fuel and without any engine modification.
Autocar India Editor Hormazd Sorabjee said the purpose of the exercise was not just to create a record but to demonstrate that using the correct driving techniques and a highly fuel efficient car like the Fiesta, anyone could stretch the litre of precious fuel.