Ford Motors to start importing EcoSport from India into US from 2018
17 Nov 2016
US car maker Ford Motors said that it would start importing the EcoSport compact crossover from India starting 2018.
According to commentators, the move comes after the company started feeling the heat from president-elect Trump stance on car imports from Mexico, which left it no choice but to import vehicles from India.
The small SUV was recently introduced for the US market at the Los Angeles auto show Monday. The car had been selling in more than 100 markets around the world including India. It had been in production at Ford's assembly plant in Chennai since 2013 with Indian sales accounting for 15 per cent of the plant's output.
The announcement makes Ford the first automaker ever to import cars from India into the US market.
Trump had said in election campaigning that his administration would levy 35 per cent tariff on cars imported into the US. According to Ford CEO Mark Fields, who spoke to CNN such a tariff would hurt the US economy and workers. According to trade data, Canada accounts for the most of the vehicles imported into the US followed by Japan, Europe and Mexico. About 80 per cent of cars sold in the US are made in the US itself.
General Motors (GM) started importing the Buick Envision from China into the US market in May. Also Volvo, now owned by Chinese automaker Geely, started imports of the S60 Inscription from China in September 2015.
According to commentators, Ford would not be the only automaker to be impacted if the anti-import rhetoric turn were to be implemented into hard policy. Most of the world's automakers have production facilities in the country or were setting up new plants there.
Toyota started building a new assembly facility in Apaseo el Grande, in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, which would produce the compact Corolla, the world's best-selling automobile and routinely one of the best-sellers in the US.