Mumbai: Ford Motor Co. plans to launch four new car models in India and is looking to increase the amount of locally-made parts to reduce the cost of its vehicles sold in the country, the head of its local unit said on Friday.
Ford's sales in India have increased 9.5 per cent to 84,469 vehicles in the fiscal year that ended on March 31, pushing up its market share to 3.4 per cent from 2.9 per cent a year ago, industry data showed.
"Within the next 18-20 months we plan to launch four new models in India," Nigel Harris, president of Ford India, told Reuters in an interview. He declined to elaborate.
Ford had said in 2010 it would launch 8 vehicle models, based on its global car platforms, in India by the end of 2015, a target the company is unlikely to meet due to the economic slowdown and sluggish car sales in Asia's third-largest economy."We will be close to that, but couple of the models will be deferred by a couple of years," said Harris.
