Ford India Private Limited began production in 1926 as a subsidiary of the Ford Motor Company of Canada, but was shut down in 1954 as the company was in loss. Ford re-entered the market in October 1995 as Mahindra Ford India Limited, a 50-50 joint venture with Mahindra & Mahindra Limited. Ford increased its interest to 72% in March 1998 and renamed the company Ford India Private Limited. The total investments made by Ford Motor Company since it set shop in 1995 stands at $2 billion as of April 2012. Ford launched several models in India, including the sixth generation European Ford Escort and the Ford Ikon, later followed by the Ford Mondeo. The Ford Ikon was a successful model, but Escort and Mondeo couldn't do much well in the market. Escort was a bit too pricey for what it offered while Mondeo couldn't survive the Asian competitors like Honda Accord and Hyundai Sonata.. In late 2004 Ford launched the European Ford Fusion, which brought a totally new segment to India - the crossover which the company called as an Urban Activity Vehicle & marketed in India as The-No-Nonsense-Car; going by its name, it was a very practical car way ahead of its time, and was popular mostly among enthusiasts. Ford launched the Ford Fiesta in its sedan guise which was widely received in the market and was a sales success. Ford also launched the Ford Figo, based on the sixth generation Ford Fiesta hatchback in the Indian market. Ford was one of the first companies to exploit government's sub 4 metre policy to develop an SUV for Indian market named Ford EcoSport which is again a successful model for Ford in Indian market. Ford also exports the EcoSport from India to EU and US markets. Ford then launched the second generation Ford Figo, first in its sedan guise as the Ford Figo Aspire, which now remains Ford's only sedan in the Indian market after discontinuation of the sixth generation Ford Fiesta. The Figo hatchback was launched at a later date. To fill the gap between the Ford Figo and Ford EcoSport, the company launched the Ford Freestyle, in 2018 which is essentially a crossover version of the face-lifted Ford Figo hatchback. It is a quite successful model, it came with class leading safety features and eventually won Gaadify car of the year award 2018.
Manufacturing facilities
FIPL's main manufacturing plant located in Maraimalai Nagar, 45 km from Chennai has a capacity to produce 150,000 cars on a two-shift basis and 200,000 with three shifts. In 2010-11, the company's yearly production crossed the 100,000 mark. As its new hatchback Figo was launched in March 2010, Ford Motor Company has invested $500 million to double capacity of the plant to 200,000 vehicles annually and setting up a facility to make 250,000 engines annually. The engine plant opened for operations in January 2010. To meet the growing domestic demand and with an eye on engine exports, the company has invested $72 million to raise engine production capacity to 330,000 units. The company rolled out the urban SUV Ford EcoSport in June 2013. It had announced a $142-million investment in the EcoSport. With the Ford EcoSport, the Chennai plant will ramp up to full capacity. In 2010, production hit 127,000 units. As part of its plan to launch 8 new vehicles by 2015, the car maker is pumping in an investment of $1 billion for a new state-of-the-art manufacturing plant at Sanand, Gujarat. The plant is coming up on a 460-acre site. It will have an initial installed capacity to manufacture 270,000 engines and 240,000 vehicles a year. Coming up alongside the plant is the supplier park, spread across 150 acres. The company has attracted 19 world-class supplier manufacturers as of March 2012. The plant commenced production in 2014. Once the Sanand plant is fully operational, Ford India will have a cumulative capacity to make 440,000 cars and 610,000 engines annually.
As of April 2016, Ford has more than 376 sales and service outlets in 209 cities across India.
Sales performance
In the year 2010, FIPL recorded sales of 83,887 vehicles against 29,488 vehicles sold during the year 2009 and registered a sales growth of 172%. Ford India remains India's No. 1 PV exporter, beats Hyundai by 696 units.
Exports
Ford India currently exports 40 percent of its engine production and 25 percent of its car production to 35 countries. Some of them are: United States, Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Nepal, Mexico, Kenya, Bahrain, Angola, Bermuda, Ghana, Iraq, Liberia, Lebanon, Malawi, Madagascar, Mauritius, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, UAE, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
