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Ford hopes for fair share in D segment

Our Bureau

COIMBATORE, Dec. 25

FORD India Ltd (FIL), which has stirred up competition in the D segment with its launch of the luxury car Mondeo, hopes to garner a fair share of the demand in this segment with its `features-rich' model, according to a senior official of FIL.

He said this segment has been evolving itself into a distinct entity in the last five or six months and is expected to see a demand for 6,000-7,000 units a year despite the stiff pricing.

Speaking at a news conference on the occasion of the launch of the model in Coimbatore, Mr. Gopalakrishnan, General Manager,Customer Service, FIL, Chennai, said the question of FIL going in for the manufacture of Mondeo model in India depended on how the market evolved.

The company was now bringing in the model as completely built units (CBUs) from Ford's plant in Belgium. It would like to make its assessment of manufacturing it within the country later.

He said the company launched its Ikon model in the C segment and subsequently a lot of players have entered this segment. Again the company has sought to redefine the D segment with the launch of Mondeo.

Mr. Gopalakrishnan, declining to provide a direct answer as to whether the company was planning to widen its product range by launching new models in India, said "it is all a matter of time and appropriate decisions which the company will make depending on the market growth".

FIL's parent company does not have a comparative product in the A segment to take on Maruti 800 but in B segment it has.

When asked whether the pricing of the Mondeo car - at Rs 15.56 lakhs for petrol model and Rs 16.79 lakhs for diesel model (in Tamil Nadu) - was not too stiff, he said the pricing was reasonable considering the fact that it was a features-loaded car.