Escalating the price war in hatchbacks, Ford India on Tuesday launched small car Figo at a very competitive Rs3.5 lakh for the base petrol version and Rs4.48 lakh for the base diesel version (prices ex-showroom Delhi).
With this kind of pricing, not only will the Figo compete directly with General Motors’ Beat but also with Maruti Swift and Ritz as also Hyundai i10 and Volkswagen Polo.
The car comes strapped with some interesting features such as Bluetooth connectivity, large boot space (284 litres, more when the rear seats are folded) which are usually not seen in this segment, but it remains to be seen whether Ford will make money on a car which has been priced so competitively.
Joe Hinrichs, Ford Motor Company president (Asia, Pacific and Africa), expressed confidence about making money with the Figo, saying, “We are all learning to make money at lower price points.”
The company has a manufacturing capacity of two lakh units per annum at the Chennai facility and this would be used to sell Figos in the domestic as well as export markets.
Perhaps reasonably high volumes in domestic and export markets and even more localisation could be the buzz words for Ford’s profitable success with its first small car in the Indian market.
The car will be available in two engine levels — 1.2 litre petrol and 1.4 litre diesel — for the domestic market. For exports, 1.4 litre petrol and 1.6 litre diesel would be shipped. All but the 1.6 litre diesel are being made by Ford in-house at Chennai and the 1.6 litre engine plus transmissions are being sourced from the CK Birla group company Avtec. Coupled with extensive local parts sourcing, Figo is 85% localised.
This car, which is based on one of Ford’s global platforms, is being manufactured only in India and would be shipped to several markets from here, beginning with South Africa by the year-end.
Michael Boneham, Ford India MD, said his company plans one new product every 12-18 months, mostly in the small car segment.
Ford plans to bring in products from its latest global car platform, named ‘B’, based on which “next generation” products will be rolled out.
