Ford to Display Its Small Car This Week

Ford Motor Company will be unveiling its much-awaited ‘small car’ in this week. This will happen as soon as in two-three days.

The US car major had launched the Ford Fiesta sedan in 2005. Since then, Ford India has not had a new product launch in India, while the company has continued to upgrade its existing product line in the country.

Ford India will launch its small car, code named B517 in March 2010. This car will be launched in an attempt to secure its presence in the country. The small car, which is expected to compete with the Hyundai i20 and the Suzuki Swift, was also showcased to its dealers in Chennai recently.

This small car will be a four-door hatchback that will be powered by an indigenous diesel and petrol engine. The engine of the small car will be manufactured at its Chennai plant.

Ford India has invested around $500 million (Rs 2,400 crore) to double the current capacity by one lakh cars and 2.5 lakh engines. Recently, the company has seen an increase in primary sales (sales from company to dealers), with the Endeavour and the Ikon maintaining their leadership positions in the premium SUV segment and mid-size segment, respectively. Ford India’s existing line-up includes the Ikon, the Fiesta, the Fusion and the hulky Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV), Endeavour.

The US car major is keen to accelerate focus on emerging markets such as China and India with fuel-efficient products. Globally, consumers are seen to be moving towards fuel-efficient small cars and Ford India is currently offers cars in mid-size segments and SUV segments.

Ford Could Bring Out its Small Car this Month

The Indian car market is now in a glorious period. There is also a fast emerging luxury car market but the most expanding segment is that of the small car. Many companies, realizing the flowering love for the small cars in the country are coming up with new models or introducing new variants for the existing models, and so there is never a scarcity in this segment.

The next in the queue is Ford with its small car, codenamed B517. The company has been long working on the project and this seems to be the right time to make it public. The company is expected to showcase its small car in Indian this month. But the car will not hit the roads this year, it will be at least March next year for the car to get launched. After B517 gets launched in India it will also be exported globally including the African and Asia-Pacific countries.

The B517 will be available in both petrol and diesel variants. It was said that the diesel version of the car will have a 1.5-litre engine, but now it is expected to be launched powered by a 1.4-litre Duratorq engine, similar to the one used in Ford Ikon and Ford Fiesta. The other option will be a 1.2-litre petrol engine.

Chiefly designed for the Indian market, the car once launched will pose a good completion to models like the Volkswagen Polo, and new Chevy Spark. The pricing of the B517 is not yet revealed. This small car is expected to enter the Indian car market with really big promises.

In the Process of Defining a Small Car...

There is a good chance that your will become a small car very soon. To make matters more clear removing the cloud of confusion in the first sentence, here is a further explanation to it. The Japanese car makers Toyota and Honda Motors are the two that are looking for a change in the way India will define a small car.

The companies are asking the Indian government to “Change the criteria of classifying a small car”. And there is a good reason for this which will not only benefit the two companies but all the car makers in the country; and the better reason is that in India small cars have lower tax rates.

But will the two be able to change the mind of the Indian government into thinking different about small cars and classify a different set of cars as small cars taking into consideration the new criteria such as the emission norms, fuel efficiency, and passenger safety and not the engine capacity, which has been for a long time, the defining factor.

This request raised by the Toyota and Honda has invited different opinions. Many are of the same opinion that the government should stop defining a car as small just by considering the fuel and engine capacity.

The demand of the small cars in the country is really do the magic and that could be the reason why these companies want the Indian government to think new. It is expected that if the governments nods at changing the defining criterion then there will be a huge shuffle in the Indian car industry

India Poised To be “Detroit of the East”

It seems like India certainly has arrived in the big scene of motoring. India as a whole could be the “Detroit of the East” soon with so many major car brands bringing their production centre to “Incredible India”. India has taken the centre stage producing small cars and the global automakers already seem to have been enchanted with the sub-continent for this sole purpose. India is all set to pip China in the automotive production scene and earn all the automotive laurels to itself when it comes to small cars.

We in India already have Suzuki Motor Corporation pitching in with the erstwhile Maruti Udyog to become Maruti Suzuki India which has already scripted a success story for itself in style in the span of twenty five years. Hyundai Motors, a Korean car company soon followed suit and set shop here and has marched in India with their superior products and now has already exporting cars to European countries keeping India as its production base for small cars.

Likewise, Toyota Motor Corporation tagging along with the Kirloskar Group in India about a decade ago also started producing cars here in India and already acknowledged the fact that the Indian operations of the company has stood still even with the recession taking its toll in other countries abroad. Toyota also plans to come up with a small car factory by 2011.

General Motors which has its presence in India with the Chevrolet brand stood firm ground during “Motown Meltdown” which affected its parent company in the US and other countries. It also might have contributed to the revival of the parent company. Business for Chevy here in India is blooming in an unexpected pace making GM count on GM India as a profit making venture.

Tata Motors earlier a commercial vehicle manufacturer barged into the great Indian Motoring scene with the advent of its Tata Indica and soon went up to produce more models of which the Tata Nano certainly awaits a mention. This small wonder has broken all the barriers the motoring world ever knew and will soon become a cash cow for Tata Motors once the export of the Tata Nano begins.

Another Indian auto manufacturer Mahindra and Mahindra also has known the importance of India as a production hub and has already started exporting its products to lucrative auto markets like that south-east Asia, America, Europe, Africa and Australia.

Honda, Ford, Mitsubishi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Fiat and Skoda all have their production plants in India already. Audi, Nissan, Renault and PSA Peugeot-Citroen have also confirmed their participation in this big production marathon here in India. India expects a lot of other auto manufactures to set shop here in India.

But why is this big rush of global auto makers queuing in line to set shop in India? There are many benefits in India, including a high-quality vendor base that is also cost-effective, leading to globally-competitive pricing. In coming days we surely can see a lot of global auto makers emulate companies like Hyundai and Maruti Suzuki, which make small cars in India to export to Europe.