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Ford India moving base from Nashik to Madras

Ford India Limited is moving out of Nashik bag and baggage.

The company has decided to hand over the Nashik manufacturing facility to its joint venture partner -- Mahindra and Mahindra - and shift the production lines of its luxury sedan, the Escort, to the Maraimalai Nagar unit near Madras, Ford India's Managing Director Phil Spender said in New Delhi today.

''This is as part of our efforts to integrate our manufacturing lines for both Escort and Ikon. Besides, Mahindra needed the Nashik plant for some use and we decided to hand it back to them,'' Spender added.

The process of shifting the production lines to Madras has already begun and commercial production of the Escort from the new facility would commence by the month-end. ''Trial production has already begun.''

The company is also working aggressively towards introducing its next offering for the Indian roads -- the Ikon -- by November this year. The pricing and positioning of the car would be finalised shortly, he said.

Meanwhile, faced with abysmally low sales figures, Ford India has dropped plans to locally produce power trains for the Escort in India.

However, the company intends to locally manufacture the engines and transmissions of the Ikon.

''With such low volumes for the Escort, it is not viable to produce the engines and transmissions for the car here. But we expect the Ikon sales to reach the required level within 18 months of commencement of local production of engines.''

In the first year of production, Ford India intends to produce close to 25,000 units of the car, which would be launched in a three-box design. Trial production of the car is slated to commence in July.

Ford India is pinning its hopes on the Ikon as it expects to become cash positive within a few months of the launch of the car. But, profits on investments would be a few years down the line.

According to Spender, ''Becoming cash positive will be our first financial milestone and then we will move forward.''

Ford India, a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company of the United States, is also projecting to commence exports of the Ikon from India within 18 months of starting production from its Maraimallai Nagar plant. Latin America has been finalised as one of the export destinations for the car, which would sport both petrol and diesel engines.

UNI

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