Ford had recently announced its aggressive plans to launch 8 new cars in India by 2015. The first of this set would be the all new Fiesta next month. However launching new cars also means you should have enough capacity to manufacture them. Thus Ford is looking at a new manufacturing facility in Gujarat. The upcoming plant will cost Ford India close to Rs. 5000 crore but will also enable them to swiftly produce 3 lakh cars every year. The Gujarat government has identified 400 acres of land near Sanand (Tata has a Nano facility here), with 100 more acres being used for component production.
Ford’s Chennai plant has a capacity of 2 lakh units per year and set them back by Rs. 1700 crore. The new facility will help the American automaker to boost its export production significantly. With two ports in the nearby facility, there is no doubt that Gujarat is set to become an automobile manufacturing hub by the end of this decade. General Motors, Tata Motors and soon Maruti Suzuki and Ford would be churning out large number of car units from this state.