Ford to unveil small car

Mumbai: A Google search would throw up an endless number of results for Alan Mulally. This is hardly surprising given that he is the President and CEO of Ford Motor Company.

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The fact that Mulally is in New Delhi for an event concerning his company's Indian operations is, therefore, not a trifling matter. He is scheduled to unveil Ford India's small car on Wednesday.

It is slated for an early 2010 launch, but the presence of one of the more powerful men in the global automobile industry at a pre-launch event clearly shows that Ford is serious about its India innings.

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China programme

Now, if reports are to be believed, Mulally will then fly to China to be present for a groundbreaking ceremony on Friday for his company's third plant. Clearly, Asia is the new growth driver for Ford especially with North America in a shambles and Europe crawling back to recovery.

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As an automobile market, China is quite some way ahead of India with monthly sales averaging a million units. Ford's two plants have a capacity of over four lakh units which comfortably surpass its numbers in India.

In fact, since the time it set up operations in Chennai, Ford has not quite set the market afire except for the time after the Ikon hit the roads and the josh theme caught the fancy of buyers. Following that heady period, the company has, in a sense, lost its way here only to see Japanese and Korean rivals zip past.

It is precisely for this reason that the small car is so important to Ford in India borne by the fact that Mulally will be personally present for the unveiling on Wednesday. As sources say, it is just not about a car but an acknowledgment of the country's importance as a low-cost sourcing centre for its Asia-Pacific operations.

This has become especially relevant in the new global order where multinationals are quickly realising that the days of large fuel-guzzlers could be relegated to the archives soon. Those with plants in the West are also facing the added burden of high costs. There is no question that the next best bet is Asia, especially India and China.

The Ford small car will, therefore, not be intended solely for this country but also to countries in the Asia-Pacific region and, possibly, South Africa too in the near future. Apart from this, Indian suppliers will now be part of the American carmaker's new global programmes in this part of the world as it kicks off work on cost-effective platforms.

Cost control

Mulally obviously knows that if his company were to strengthen its bottomline, cost-control is an imperative. Similarly, topline growth will come from countries such as China and India. It is quite likely that Ford will also aggressively pursue opportunities in Brazil and Russia keeping in mind that the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) economies hold the key to growth in the future.

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From the Indian operations' viewpoint, this could not have happened at a better time. Experts say that Ford missed the bus on more than one occasion when the market was warming up to small cars with the Government also supporting the cause through lower excise duties. The new model could change all that if everything else, right from price to smart retailing, falls in place, they add.

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