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Ford to take CBU route for Mondeo

Our Bureau

PUNE, July 12

FORD India Ltd has opted out of the CKD route for its next launch, the Mondeo, and will instead bring in the car in completely built up form from its Belgium plant.

The car will be launched by the end of the year, Mr Randy Schokley, Vice-President, Marketing, Sales & Services said, declining, however, to reveal any further details.

Mr Schokley, who was here to inaugurate a Rs 2 crore plus state-of-the-art service station set up by company dealer Talera Automobiles, told newspersons here the company had decided to go in for CBU's for its D segment car since sales volume did not warr ant the investments that the CKD route would require. ``We expect only sales of about 5,000 units in the D segment, so it will be financially unviable to go in for CKDs,'' he said.

Mr Shokley said the company was considering other cars for launch in the Indian market but said it would first consolidate its existing business and the Mondeo launch while simultaneously studying the market for future launches.

FIL is also in talks with some reputed global auction houses to fuel its used car's business, Mr Schokley said adding that its Ford Assured project has seen 10 dealers selling 300 used cars till date.

The company is meanwhile extending its reach to the consumer by strengthening its sales and servicing network, which will go up from the existing 60 to over 75 by the year end, he said.

Mr Shockley said the company is also studying the feasibility of entering into partnerships with insurance companies with a view to appoint preferred insurance vendors at the dealer end.

The Talera Automobile service centre, spread over three acres of land on the outskirts of Pune, has been designed to cater to the company's expected launches in the future. With servicing equipment procured and designed to Ford specifications, it has amo ng other things a fully-computerised worldwide diagnostic system from the company to detect existing problems in the car, Mr Pramod Talera, Director, Talera Automobiles said. Mr Shockley who inaugurated the service station said the dealer network and the sales & servicing set up of the dealers would increasingly be the public face of automobile manufacturers and said the former would have to benchmark their operations with the best in the world.

FILs sales volumes, meanwhile, have touched 9,500 units in the period between January and June, Mr Shockley said adding the company expects to touch the level of 20,000 units by end of 2001.