Ford India, subsidiary of the US major Ford, has launched 45 outlets across 35 cities in the country. The company said it will launch one outlet every ten days in the next 24 months. Meanwhile, the company also said that the expansion of diesel plant will be concluded by March end. The car major is investing around $72 million for the expansion plans.
Speaking to reporters after inaugurating MPL Ford showroom in Chennai Ford India President and Managing Director Michael Boneham said: : “We will continue our growth commitment in India, by launching one outlet every 10 days during the current year, which has been the trend ever since the company launched Figo in March.”’
The company is also planning to introduce eight new models by the middle of this decade. Two of the eight products — Ford Figo and Ford Ecosport — have already been introduced.
He noted, two years back, on February 16, the company opened 26 dealerships on a single day. Today,we are inaugurating 45 new outlets. He said 40 per cent of the outlets were in tier II and III cities. With the opening up of the outlets number of sales points in the country is currently at 230 outlets across 123 cities, he said.
Speaking about SUV Ecosport, which was launched at Auto Expo in January, he said the response was overwhelming, the company will manufacture the product at Maralaimalai nagar facility, near Chennai.“Ecosport will be a great urban SUV. We are aggressively putting our plans together to launch the start of commercial production process’’, he added.
Speaking about the company’s proposed expansion of its diesel plant, he said, by April it will be ready. The company is investing $72 million to expand its diesel engine capacity to 3.40 lakh units from 2.50 lakh units.
Further he said, recently the company signed an agreement with Tamil Nadu government for additional investment of $142 million. The company had already made an investment $1 billion in the state.
