Ford Corporation unveiled a made-in-India compact car ‘Figo’.The four-door “Figo,” which is Italian slang for “cool,”.Ford plans to launch Figo in the Indian market in the year 2010. The Figo is aimed at the Indian market and for export in the Asia-pacific markets.
The automaker declined to reveal the Figo’s sale price and initial production volumes. One analyst said he expects the Figo to sell for 300,000 to 400,000 rupees ($6,700 to $8,900), putting it in competition with several other compact models, including the high-end Tata Nano, which sells for the equivalent of $5,600 to $12,300.
Chief executive Allan Mulallyat the launch on Wednesday (september 23), said that it was extremely essential for the economy to get back to normalcy.
He feels there is a slow and steady growth in the economy and positive signs for the future.Auto sales in United States dropped for the first time since 1980’s due to economic recession in 2009, however, there was a rebound witnessed in the month of July and August as the governments ‘cash for clunkers’ programme supported demand.
Ford says it hopes to recover or at least break even in the year 2010, after posting losses of 30 billion dollar from 2006 to 2008.Ford Corporation, the second largest motor company in the US after General Motors in terms of sales, plans to tap the small car market globally and in the US.Mulally at the launch of Figo said he envisions the growth of small car market to double in the coming years. The automaker also feels that the fast growing Asia Pacific market would play an important role in its global sales.
Figo shares its technology with Fiesta that currently is sold in India. However, that version is older than the Fiesta model sold that is produced in Europe.
However, the cost of Figo is still not revealed, the automaker said that they were not looking to compete with Tata’s small car Nano that is priced at one lakh rupees.
Ford aims at setting up a plant in Chennai. It plans at investing 500 million dollar to double its production capacity to 200,000 vehicles per year and also make it a regional hub for small car production.
The plant also is being set up to produce diesel and gasoline engines for local vehicle production and for export within the Asia-Pacific and African region for Ford.
