Ford Motor Co Thursday said it has introduced in India a new compact sport-utility vehicle with a 1.0 liter gasoline engine, the news reports said. The company plans to sell the compact sport-utility vehicle in nearly 100 countries,the reports said.
The automobile company has unveiled its new car in India with an aim to achieve its goal of having a bigger presence in the growth markets of India, Southeast Asia and Brazil.
According to executives of Ford, the retail sales of the EcoSport in India will begin this year. Meanwhile, they also stated the vehicle, based on the Fiesta platform, will be manufactured in India, Brazil and other markets.
Besides, Ford India is investing $142 million to build the EcoSport at its plant near the southern port city of Chennai. Michael Boneham, President and Managing Director of Ford India Pvt Ltd said, “The new product will be the second Ford global vehicle to be launched in India and is a part of the eight that we plan to launch by the middle of this decade.”
The EcoSport was developed in Brazil in collaboration with Ford teams from North America, Europe and Asia. In nine years, Ford has sold 700,000 units of an older version of the EcoSport in Brazil.
According to Ford, the EcoSport is a significant move in its global plan to boost sales by nearly half by 2015 to eight million vehicles a year. It expects 60% to 70% of that growth to come from the Asia-Pacific region and Africa.
By 2020, it expects the Asia-Pacific region and Africa to make up a third of its global sales, up from 17% now, the automaker stated.
The carmaker is also investing $72 million until the middle of 2012 to raise capacity for diesel engines to 330,000. The automaker is also investing about $755 million to build a factory in Sanand in the western state of Gujarat.
Ford will initially make 240,000 vehicles a year when it is operational in 2014. Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Michigan. The company is the second largest automaker in the U.S. and the fifth largest in the world based on annual vehicle sales in 2010.
