Ford India Ltd will produce a new car in India. The C-195, as the car has been code-named, will roll out of the company''s Maraimalainagar plant sometime in November 1999. The company is expected to price the car competitively.

The Rs 1,700-crore Maraimalainagar plant, capable of producing 1 lakh vehicles a year, was inaugurated recently. Philip G. Spender, the company''s managing director, said Ford India will produce about 20,000 to 25,000 of C-195 cars in the first year of operations.

"It will be bigger on the inside and smaller on the outside than the Ford Escort," according to Mr Spender. The high level of indigenisation (70 per cent) will enable the company to price the vehicle competitively.

The engine will be imported in partially-built form. Ford India expects to export the vehicle in about 18 months from the date of its launch in India. The destinations: other regions except Europe.

The Maraimalainagar plant includes a body shop with press and machining facilities, a paint shop and an assembly shop. Most of the heavy equipment is imported, mainly from Europe.

The assembly line, however, is not the latest in design. It uses a moving line system instead of a fully automated one. The car being assembled will have to be physically pushed on the rails from one stage to another.

Ford India says investments in automation have been made after careful consideration. The assembly line could become redundant once the tiering of the component industry takes place. Then Ford India will only purchase systems from the tier-1 suppliers.

Ford India has identified about 80 vendors supplying various components for the car, of which 50 are joint ventures between Indian companies and Ford suppliers elsewhere in the world. One of the tier-1 suppliers is Visteon India, a Ford subsidiary. The C-195 manufacturing will be done entirely at Maraimalainagar. Ford India''s Nashik plant in Maharashtra will make the Ford Escort.