Ford ventures into the small car segment

Ford Motor Company will soon roll out a small car for the Indian market, thereby entering the small car segment by 2010. The company will use the old shared technology concept to develop the small car.

Ford has announced an investment of Rs 2,000 crore ($500million) for its operations in India The company plans to expand its car manufacturing capacity to 2 lakh units and set up an engine manufacturing plant to a capacity of 2.5 lakh units by 2010.

Engineers across different facilities and countries like Australia, England, Germany and India will together work on the small car.

According to Arvind Mathew, managing director and president, Ford India Pvt.Ltd, the new small car will be priced lower than Ikon, the mid-size sedan. He said, "The small car segment is a promising one. The continued growth in sales of small cars wooed us to change our strategy and our priorities accordingly."

"Ford might also look into other emerging automobile markets for the new small car. The car, hence, will be designed along those lines," he added.