Ford Hikes Prices Of Its Cars By Upto 3 Per Cent

Ford India has increased the prices across its model portfolio between 1 to 3 per cent from July 2018. Speaking to carandbike at an event, Anurag Mehrotra said, "Yes, we have hiked the prices of all our models between 1-3%. One factor is the input cost and the other is the exchange rate too has an effect on us and the mitigation strategy is going to be localisation. You must have seen it with the first-gen Figo, as it had 60 per cent localisation first off, now it's around 85 per cent and the next-gen models will have even more local content in them."

It was just last year that Ford updated the Ecosport and it began this year with a bang by launching a crossover - the Freestyle. The company just yesterday announced that it had sold 1 million cars in India ever since it first started operations in 1998 and in its 20th year now, the company is looking forward to bringing in new cars to India.

The hike in the price of products is an expected according to Mehrotra, "The exchange rate and the commodity prices like steel, aluminium have seen a hike and we have seen some pressure on that and yes, we can take a hit up to a point but after that we have had to pass it on to the consumers."

However, the hike in price has had no effect on the footfalls for the company and that certainly comes as a relief. Mehrotra says, "The good news is that we haven't seen the impact in terms of numbers. The flow of inquiries and footfalls continue to be strong with very little discount on the market price."

He goes on to state that both the Chennai and the Sanand plant continue to be used at 95 per cent capacity and the company is keeping a close watch on the demand from the market which will grow in the coming days.