After the success of the Smart Drive program, Ford is doing more to bring the Figo in contact with prospective customers by taking the Figo to where they live. They are organizing the ‘Bharat Yatra’ pan-India drive covering 1,000 cities to give prospective buyers a first hand look at the car.
Figo sales aren’t at year 1 levels anymore as cars like the new Swift, Etios Liva and Honda Brio are corrupting minds of the Figo buyer. He would like to wait to see these models before making up his mind.
To celebrate the sale of 100,000 Figo cars, Ford has started a pan-India ‘Bharat Yatra’. The Bharat Yatra is a road show which will travel to 1,000 cities across India gives people a firsthand look at the popular hatch. The initiative from Ford will last for 100 days.
The Yatra will cover 1,000 cites in 100 days. It kicks off Kolkata on June 29 and covers West Bengal, Assam, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Maharashtra. Next week two more convoys will start in Pune and Bangalore. All three three convoys will visit 18 Indian states over the next 100 days. Not only will they cover Tier 1 and Tier 2 locations but Tier 3 areas as well.
Customers will be invited with their families to experience the Figo and click pictures with it. Ford’s exporting Figo to five countries and will add another forty eight this year. The Yatra attempts to revive sales as the B segment is flocked with many new models.
After the Tata Nano, Ford Figo will be the next car India will export to Sri Lanka. Ford has appointed Future Automobiles, a subsidiary of Softlogic Holdings as its exclusive dealer in Sri Lanka. Ford says the demand for cars, similar to other South East Asian countries, will rise in Sri Lanka. It sells the Ranger, Everest (Endeavour), Focus and Fiesta exported from Thailand and Europe.
Back in 2007 Ford had pulled out of the country due to poor demand for its products. In its second innings, it hopes the improving Sri Lankan economy will have a good appetite for Ford cars. Sales is predicted to catch up next year and it hopes to capture 15% market share in the next few years in all segments it is present in.
Last year Ford said it will export the Figo to 48 countries including African countries and the Caribbean islands.
Left – Lada’ next generation Kalina spied in Russia. The new compact car expected to hit the market this year. The Kalina was born in 2004 and is sold in a variety of body styles fitted with 1.4- and 1.6-liter petrol engines. The Kalina is sold as the Lada 119 in Finland as its name means “rattle” in Finnish language.
Right – Ford Figo, a revolutionary product for Ford which changed the way India thinks about the Blue Oval. The Figo is a re-skinned previous generation Fiesta with 1.2-liter petrol and 1.4-liter diesel engines. It will be exported to 48 countries from India.
It feels like only last week I was interacting with the Ford India management at the 50,000th Figo celebration, and already the 100,000th celebration has concluded at the Chennai factory. Time flies. And so have Figos from dealerships outlets in India. The Figo has changed the way India sees Ford forever.
Before the launch of the Figo, Ford’ high point was with the Fiesta (Fiesta Classic now) which people loved for its driving dynamics. The old Ikon and Endeavour were not doing serious numbers. The Fusion, despite being a unique product and practical in many ways, bombed in our market. Some blamed it on the pricing. Some said it wasn’t marketed properly. The Mondeo, it has to be said, came way before its time to India and met with a premature end. Having suffered a few blows along the way, Ford was giving us the feeling that it was a sidelines manufacturer, content with just having a presence in India.
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Long time ago, Ford, GM and Chrysler were considered the BIG 3 of the American car market. But as more and more companies started to set foot on the US soil, the BIG 3 started bleeding their respective market share.
A similar situation is being observed in the Indian Market as well. Our own BIG 3 – Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors and Hyundai have started to lose out on their market share to newbies such as Ford and VW.
According to figures released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), here are the drops in market share
• Maruti Suzuki India’s market share dropped to 48.74 per cent from 50.09 per cent in 2009-10.
• Hyundai Motor India’s dropped to 18.10 per cent from 20.61 per cent in 2009-10.
• Tata Motors dropped from 18.10 per cent to 13.18 per cent in 2009-10.
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As Ford Figo celebrated its 1 year birthday earlier this week, some more ‘good news’ was revealed to the masses. After selling 75K in just one year and winning many precious COTY awards, the Figo will now be exported to Mexico, Middle East and North Africa. The exports will start next week wherein a batch of 1,500 cars will be sent to Mexico from the Ford India’s Chennai Plant. Ford [ Read More ]
Ford has sent a weird preliminary invitation to share something related to the Figo next week. We’re not able to figure out what the company is trying to convey though it is clear that we are not being called for an unveiling of the new Fiesta or the Fiesta Classic variant. The media event will be held on the 9th of this month in Delhi. The success of Figo will [ Read More ]
‘After every death, there is a new life’, so says the law of nature. This is also true in terms of cars. Only weeks after the death of the Ikon, Ford is now reportedly working on a new entry level sedan. According to an industry executive, who has direct knowledge of the company’s growth plan, Ford India is planning to build a new India-specific entry level sedan. Adding to that, [ Read More ]
After the success of the Smart Drive program, Ford is doing more to bring the Figo in contact with prospective customers by taking the Figo to where they live. They are organizing the ‘Bharat Yatra’ pan-India drive covering 1,000 cities to give prospective buyers a first hand look at the car.
