EcoSport is biggest test for Ford India MD Joginder Singh - Firstpost

The EcoSport is perhaps the biggest test of Joginder Singh's career at Ford. Singh, who is the President and Managing Director of Ford India, is a Ford veteran, having worked for the company across Europe and USA before coming to India. He says when Figo hatchback was launched three years back, it quickly became a volume model for the company and EcoSport could well become a gamechanger for Ford in India. But Singh is cautious – about giving out sales targets, when speaking about rivals and even when quizzed on localisation content of the new compact SUV. Which is just as well, since the SUV space is where all the action is right now and competitors are likely hanging on every word he speaks. Renault Duster is the one car which is most likely to get impacted by EcoSport and we hear Renault has already planned a significant facelift for the Duster this year. Firstpost interviewed Joginder Singh. Here are excerpts from an interview: President and Managing Director of Ford India, Joginder Singh (R), and Vinay Piparsania, Executive Director for Marketing Sales and service, pose with newly launched Ford EcoSport in New Delhi. AFP Why is EcoSport so important for Ford's India success story? EcoSport is a gamechanger product for us, just like the Figo was when it was launched three years back. Then, our 30,000 sales volumes were tripled in no time because of Figo launch. EcoSport will be a volume product in our showrooms along with the Figo now. What are your sales and production targets for EcoSport? We cannot speak of sales targets. But we have invested $142 million to expand capacity at our Chennai facility for EcoSport's domestic sales and exports to various countries. We will satisfy demand. Will EcoSport triple volumes, like Figo did? We have seen immense customer excitement and interest for this car. Can't comment on volumes though. Why is the one litre Ecoboost engine variant priced higher than the 1.5 litre when both run on petrol but only the one litre variant enjoys lower excise benefit? We have offered 10 variants in diesel and petrol options and tried to offer value for money in each. Several factors have to be balanced when pricing is done.(declines to specifically answer this question any further). The Utility Vehicle market is slowing down now because of excise flip-flops and also because price differential between diesel and petrol fuels is narrowing. Does this worry you? We have made sure there is flexibility at the two facilities of Chennai and Sanand between diesel and petrol models and engines. So either can be made on the same line and anyway, we need to keep in mind the demand from export markets as well. When do exports begin and to which countries? Right now, the focus is on domestic market but exports will begin soon. Markets like Australia and New Zealand should be first. Will you export right hand drive or left hand drive vehicles? And what is the localisation level on EcoSport? Both right and left hand drive cars will be exported. And localisation level is sufficient. via Technology - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNFITXrvUlXg95WOcdGKkUude-x1ig&url=http://www.firstpost.com/business/ecosport-is-biggest-test-for-ford-india-md-joginder-singh-907639.html

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