Auto
Expo 2012: New SUV Ford EcoSport launched in India, company to invest $142
million
NEW DELHI: Ford Motor Co on
Wednesday launched the EcoSport, its new global compact sports utility vehicle,
and said it will invest $142 million in the company's Chennai plant in south
India to manufacture the model for the domestic and export markets.
The EcoSport is the second of
eight new global models that Ford plans to launch in India, the company said in
a statement, as it targets Asian and African markets in a push to increase
annual global sales to 8 million vehicles by 2015.
Ford, which sold just under
100,000 cars in India in 2011, a rise of 15 percent from the previous year, has
said it expected Asian sales volumes to double to account for a third of the
carmaker's global sales by 2020.
"The Indian market will be
the third largest by the end of the decade behind the U.S. and China," Joe
Hinrichs, group vice-president and Asia Pacific and Africa president told
reporters.
"We are still bullish on
India and we expect significant growth as per capita income rises in tier-II
and -III cities."
India's car sales, which grew 30
percent in the year that ended in March 2011, are expected to be flat in the
current financial year, an industry body said last month, as high interest
rates and rising input costs bite.
Ford will invest $142 million in
its 200,000 vehicles-a-year plant in Chennai, where the carmaker builds its
Figo and Fiesta models, to buy equipment required to manufacture the EcoSport,
said Michael Boneham, managing director of Ford India.
The 2012 India Auto Expo, held
once every two years, begins on Thursday in New Delhi.
Be it a small SUV or a full-size seven-seater, all four new SUVs possess the winning combination of exceptional fuel efficiency, world-class safety, powerful performance and practical versatility that sets a Ford Ecosport a cut above the rest.