Ford is considering entering the fast-growing Indian commercial vehicles segment. Commercial vehicles can complement Ford’s plans of being a volume player in India.
Ford is studying the Indian market and will be firming up the plans by the end of the current year. The company will look at bringing out highly utilitarian sub-5 tonne pickup trucks from its Chennai facility. The facility has a capacity to make 200,000 passenger cars and 250,000 engines every year.
As India attracts a high import duty of 107%, it did not make economic sense for Ford to import pickups from Thailand. India’s light commercial vehicles market has been growing in double digits, driven by a rising need for vehicles that can transport people and goods on shorter and congested routes.
Ford’s rival General Motors India (GM) recently entered a collaboration with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. to develop and manufacture light commercial vehicles in the passenger and goods carrier segment.
GM plans to produce the vehicles for Indian and exports markets from its facilities at Talegaon near Pune and Halol in Gujarat.
Source: Livemint
