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Carmaker Ford India today announced a hike of one per cent in the prices of its small car ‘Figo’ from this month in order to minimise the impact of rising commodity rates.
“There has been a continuous cost pressure on our products as input costs are growing. We did a small price increase of one per cent on Figo at the beginning of this month,” Ford India President and Managing Director Mr Michael Boneham told reporters here.
The impact of increasing commodity prices is there and the company is assessing similar steps on other models as well, he added.
After the hike, Figo, which is available both in petrol and diesel versions, is priced between Rs 3.59 lakh and Rs 5.48 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).
The company also unveiled a new version of its mid size sedan ‘Fiesta’, the first among eight announced products to be launched in India by 2015.
Talking about the new ‘Fiesta’, Mr Boneham said, “This is a premium product and is the first of our new line up of eight cars. The car will be launched around July this year“.
The company will produce the new ‘Fiesta’ locally at its Chennai facility. The plant has a production capacity of two lakh cars on three shift bases and 2.5 lakh engines every year.
Commenting on the company’s sales growth, Ford India Executive Director (Marketing, Sales and Service) Mr Nigel E Wark said, “The industry is estimated to grow around 15 per cent this fiscal. We think we can do better than that.”
On supply constrains Mr Wark said the industry is facing some sort of shortage of component.
When asked if Ford India is losing production because of supply issues, Mr Wark said, “If we want to expand capacity immediately, then it will be a challenge.”
The company is at present producing about 12,000 units every month on two shift bases.
On reports of company officials meeting Gujarat government for setting up a new plant there, Mr Wark said, “We continue to work on a long term plan. We still have capacity at Chennai. Beyond that we cannot comment anything.”
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