American carmaker Ford has been working on key areas to strengthen the brand sales in India. Recently, Ford had also announced to sell spares in the open market rather than restricting supplies to authorized centers. As per a latest update from the sources, Ford India shall undertake mass scale production of vehicles at its new manufacturing plant in Sanand, Gujarat sometime in early 2015. As per reports, the production may begin at an enormous cost of about Rs. 4500 crore.
Country's Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi has reportedly personally asked Mark Fields, Global CEO of Ford Motor Company, to place the under construction Sanand facility on a global map and export the vehicles at a larger scale. The upcoming` plant shall be Ford's second plant in the country which shall have an initial production capacity of about 2.4 Lakhs cars and 2.7 Lakhs engines.
Speaking more on the idea, Kel Kearns, Plant Director, Ford Assembly Plant explained, "At Sanand, we will be building the early prototypes at Sanand towards the end of this year, and will be going for mass production early next year. We will have 95 percent automation in our body-shop which is a the highest level of automation for any car manufacturer in whole of Asia Pacific and Africa. At existing Ford plants across different parts of the world the level of automation is about 30 percent." he further added, “Everyone has a strong belief that there will be a significant growth in domestic market. It happened in China. India looks to be second major market for cars and so we decided to roll the dice and make a significant investment here.”
Three prominent suppliers namely Cosma International Getrag Transmission India Pvt Ltd, Valeo India Pvt Ltd. and Noble Automotive have reportedly already moved in Sanand within three kilometer radius of the upcoming Ford's plant. This move shall benefit Ford with timely delivery of major components.
Source: IT
