Ford India Private Limited (FIPL), the wholly owned subsidiary of the Ford Motor company, has revealed that construction work on its upcoming Sanand manufacturing plant is continuing as per schedule. This upcoming production unit will be constructed at a cost of Rs. 5,000 crore and is expected to commence operations in 2014. FIPL has planned to make India into an export hub, from where it would dispatch vehicles to 50 countries across the world. Clearly, the American auto major does not want the prevalent economic slowdown to affect its global expansion plans.
Expressing his views regarding the upcoming manufacturing facility, Anurag Mehrotra, Vice President (VP), FIPL, said, “Once our operations at Sanand commence, our annual manufacturing capacity will increase to 4.4 lac vehicles and 6.1 lac engines while our total investments in India will double to US dollars 2 billion.” The company intends to launch seven new models by 2015, and this will be initiated with the launch of Ford EcoSport in 2013. Considering the present scenario in the compact SUV segment, Renault Duster and Mahindra Quanto are soon going to witness intense competition from EcoSport.
This new plant will be incorporating different facilities such as body assembly, paint, trim and stamping. The paint shop in the new plant will be using Ford's eco-friendly rotational dip technology and the 3-wet technology paint process, so as to ensure better finish and durability. The company has also claimed to reduce levels of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), carbon dioxide emissions and waste in the future. At present, the American auto major operates through a single manufacturing facility located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
The Sanand plant is expected to roll out 2.4 lac vehicles and 2.70 lac engines, which will add to the present capacity in Chennai. Evidently, FIPL will continue its aggressive expansion plan in India with this upcoming facility, which may help it to gain a greater market share in the country.
