One of the world's largest car maker i.e. Ford Motor Company unveiled a new small car at a press conference in Delhi, India on Wednesday. The subcompact, which is called the Figo, will be produced in India for the Indian market, as well as for export to other Asian countries and Africa.
The Figo's launch "signals Ford's intention to compete in India's largest and most important small-car market segment," the Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker said in an announcement.
A little over 1 million passenger cars are sold in India each year, according to Ford spokesman Mark Schirmer. The automaker expects India to become the third largest market for small cars, behind the U.S. and China, by 2030.
India-based Tata Motors and Japan's Suzuki Motors are currently among the country's biggest-selling carmakers.
Ford has invested $500 million in its factory near Chennai, India, to prepare it for high-volume production of the Figo, the automaker said, doubling the plant's capacity to 200,000 units per year.
The Figo was designed and engineered in India, Ford said, but it's based on the existing small-car engineering platform that's already used for the Ford Fiesta.
Ford currently sells a version of the Fiesta in India, as well as three of its other car models. While all of these Ford models would be considered small cars in the U.S., they're each bigger than the Figo, which is about the size of a Honda Fit.
According to Ford, small cars like these makes up about 70% of the Indian car market. "[That's] where the meat of the Indian market is," Ford spokesman Mark Schirmer said.
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