Ford Bets Big On India
Ford is betting real money on India. Not wanting to be as late to the party as Ford has been in China, Ford “plans to invest $1 billion to build a factory in western India to gain a greater share of one of the fastest-growing car markets,” reports Reuters from Bangalore.
Ford wants to build on its success of its India-built Figo model. The factory in Gujarat is expected to be running by 2014, at an annual capacity of 240,000 units. An official announcement is expected today.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Old news! ;o) Here's the link to the NYT article on the same topic: http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2011/07/toyota-doubles-footprint-in-india/#comments What is interesting is that the billion investment also involves a new engine plant, in that same new location, with a capacity of 270k engines/yr ... I wonder if that is just additional capacity, or if these engines are destined for export, or use in Ford's other indian assy plant.
yes, quite true there are a number of Japanese and Korean cars that are now made in India we somehow won't accept chinese made cars of any brand yet but cheap budget indian cars badged as asians seems to be ok
Not really suprising, China is viewed with a lot of suspicion in the rest of Asia because they have delusions of empire. India isn't a threat to anyone, except maybe Pakistan, so it would be much easier for many countries in that part of the world to allow more Indian imports.
I feel sorry for India.